Job 21:7-21 - Wicked People Do Not Suffer For Their Sins

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“Why do the wicked still live,
Become old, and become mighty in power?
⁸
“Their children and descendants are established with them in their sight,
And their offspring before their eyes.
⁹
“Their houses are safe from fear;
And the rod of God is not on them.
¹⁰
“His bull breeds and does not fail;
His cow calves and does not miscarry.
¹¹
“They send forth their little ones like a flock,
And their children skip about.
¹²
“They lift up their voices and sing to the tambourine and the lyre
And rejoice to the sound of the flute.
¹³
“They fully enjoy their days in prosperity,
And so go down to Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead) in a [peaceful] moment.
¹⁴
“Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us,
For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.
¹⁵
‘Who [and what] is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?
And what would we gain if we plead with Him?’
¹⁶
“But notice, the prosperity of the wicked is not in their hand (in their power);
The counsel of the wicked [and the mystery of God’s dealings with the ungodly] is far from my comprehension.

¹⁷
“How often [then] is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out,
And that their disaster falls on them?
Does God distribute pain and destruction and sorrow [to them] in His anger?
¹⁸
“Are they like straw before the wind,
And like chaff that the storm steals and carries away?
¹⁹
“You say, ‘God stores away [the punishment of] man’s wickedness for his children.’
Let God repay him so that he may know and experience it.
²⁰
“Let his own eyes see his destruction,
And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
²¹
“For what pleasure does he have in his house and family after he is dead,
When the number of his months [of life] is cut off?