21:6 When I think about this, I'm petrified with terror and my body shudders uncontrollably."
21:7 "Why do the wicked live to reach old age and increase in power and wealth, too?
21:8 Their children grow up while they're alive, and they live to see their grandchildren.
21:9 Their houses are safe from fear, and God's chastisement never visits them.
21:10 Their bull breeds without fail, and their cows calve without miscarriages.
21:11 They release their children to play like sheep; their young ones dance about,
21:12 singing with tambourines and lyres as they rejoice to the sound of flutes.
21:13 They grow old in prosperity, as they descend peacefully into the afterlife.
21:14 "They say to God, 'Turn away from us! We have no desire to know your ways.
21:15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? Where's the profit in talking to him?'
21:16 Behold! Their prosperity isn't in their control! The counsel of the wicked will remain far from me."
21:17 "How often do the wicked have their lights put out? Does calamity ever fall on them? Will God in his anger ever apportion their destruction?
21:18 May they become like a straw, blown away before the wind; like a chaff that's swept off by a storm.
21:19 God stores up their iniquity to repay their children; making them repay so that they may be aware.
21:20 Their own eyes will see their destruction; and they'll drink the wrath of the Almighty.
21:21 What will they care for their household after them, when the number of his months comes to an end?"
21:22 "Can God learn anything? After all, he will judge even the exalted ones.
21:23 Such persons will die in their full vigor, completely prosperous and secure.
21:24 His buckets are filled with milk, his bone marrow is healthy.
21:25 Others die with a bitter soul, never having tasted the good life.
21:26 They both lie down in the dust; and worms cover them."
21:27 "Look! I know your thoughts, your plans are going to harm me.
21:28 You ask, 'Where is the noble person's house?' and 'Where are the tents where the wicked live?'
21:29 Haven't you asked travelers on the highway? Don't you accept their word
21:30 that the wicked person is spared from times of calamity, that he is rescued on the day of wrath?
21:31 Who will expose his conduct to his face? Who will repay him for what he has done
21:32 when he is carried away to the cemetery and guardians are placed to watch his tomb?
21:33 The runoff from the streams will seem sweet to him; everyone will follow after him; countless crows march ahead of him.
21:34 How then, can you console me so worthlessly? What is left of your answers is treachery."
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