21:6 For, when I think 1 about this, I am terrified 2
and my body feels a shudder. 3
21:7 “Why do the wicked go on living, 4
grow old, 5 even increase in power?
21:8 Their children 6 are firmly established
in their presence, 7
their offspring before their eyes.
21:9 Their houses are safe 8 and without fear; 9
and no rod of punishment 10 from God is upon them. 11
21:10 Their bulls 12 breed 13 without fail; 14
their cows calve and do not miscarry.
21:11 They allow their children to run 15 like a flock;
their little ones dance about.
21:12 They sing 16 to the accompaniment of tambourine and harp,
and make merry to the sound of the flute.
21:13 They live out 17 their years in prosperity
and go down 18 to the grave 19 in peace.
21:14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us!
We do not want to 20 know your ways. 21
21:15 Who is the Almighty, that 22 we should serve him?
What would we gain
if we were to pray 23 to him?’ 24
21:16 But their prosperity is not their own doing. 25
The counsel of the wicked is far from me! 26
21:17 “How often 27 is the lamp of the wicked extinguished?
How often does their 28 misfortune come upon them?
How often does God apportion pain 29 to them 30 in his anger?
21:18 How often 31 are they like straw before the wind,
and like chaff swept away 32 by a whirlwind?
21:19 You may say, 33 ‘God stores up a man’s 34 punishment for his children!’ 35
Instead let him repay 36 the man himself 37
so that 38 he may know it!
21:20 Let his own eyes see his destruction; 39
let him drink of the anger of the Almighty.
21:21 For what is his interest 40 in his home
after his death, 41
when the number of his months
has been broken off? 42
21:22 Can anyone teach 43 God knowledge,
since 44 he judges those that are on high? 45
21:23 “One man dies in his full vigor, 46
completely secure and prosperous,
21:24 his body 47 well nourished, 48
and the marrow of his bones moist. 49
21:25 And another man 50 dies in bitterness of soul, 51
never having tasted 52 anything good.
21:26 Together they lie down in the dust,
and worms cover over them both.
21:27 “Yes, I know what you are thinking, 53
the schemes 54 by which you would wrong me. 55
21:28 For you say,
‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, 56
and where are the tents in which the wicked lived?’ 57
21:29 Have you never questioned those who travel the roads?
Do you not recognize their accounts 58 –
21:30 that the evil man is spared
from the day of his misfortune,
that he is delivered 59
from the day of God’s wrath?
21:31 No one denounces his conduct to his face;
no one repays him for what 60 he has done. 61
21:32 And when he is carried to the tombs,
and watch is kept 62 over the funeral mound, 63
21:33 The clods of the torrent valley 64 are sweet to him;
behind him everybody follows in procession,
and before him goes a countless throng.
21:34 So how can you console me with your futile words?
Nothing is left of your answers but deception!” 65