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Job 21

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Job Pleads for a Diligent Hearing 1–6

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Then Job answered and said,
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Hear diligently my speech; And let this be your consolations. ​
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Suffer me, and I also will speak; And after that I have spoken, mock on.
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As for me, is my complaint to man? And why should I not be impatient? ​
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Mark me, and be astonished, And lay your hand upon your mouth.
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Even when I remember I am troubled, And horror taketh hold on my flesh.

The Undeniable Prosperity of the Wicked 7–16

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Wherefore do the wicked live, Become old, yea, wax mighty in power? ​
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Their seed is established with them in their sight, And their offspring before their eyes.
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Their houses are safe from fear, Neither is the rod of God upon them. ​
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Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; Their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.
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They send forth their little ones like a flock, And their children dance.
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They sing to the timbrel and harp, And rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
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They spend their days in prosperity, And in a moment they go down to Sheol. ​
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And they say unto God, Depart from us; For we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. ​
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What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? ​
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Lo, their prosperity is not in their hand: The counsel of the wicked is far from me. ​

Questioning the Timing of Divine Judgment 17–22

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How oft is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity cometh upon them? That God distributeth sorrows in his anger? ​
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That they are as stubble before the wind, And as chaff that the storm carrieth away?
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Ye say, God layeth up his iniquity for his children. Let him recompense it unto himself, that he may know it: ​
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Let his own eyes see his destruction, And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
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For what careth he for his house after him, When the number of his months is cut off?
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Shall any teach God knowledge, Seeing he judgeth those that are high? ​

Death as the Great Equalizer 23–26

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One dieth in his full strength, Being wholly at ease and quiet:
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His pails are full of milk, And the marrow of his bones is moistened. ​
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And another dieth in bitterness of soul, And never tasteth of good.
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They lie down alike in the dust, And the worm covereth them. ​

Job Rejects the Friends' False Reasoning 27–34

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Behold, I know your thoughts, And the devices wherewith ye would wrong me. ​
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For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? And where is the tent wherein the wicked dwelt?
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Have ye not asked wayfaring men? And do ye not know their evidences,
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That the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity? That they are led forth to the day of wrath? ​
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Who shall declare his way to his face? And who shall repay him what he hath done?
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Yet shall he be borne to the grave, And men shall keep watch over the tomb.
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The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, And all men shall draw after him, As there were innumerable before him.
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How then comfort ye me in vain, Seeing in your answers there remaineth only falsehood? ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Job 21

Verse 2

let this be your consolations — Tanchum is comfort or solace. The friends 'came… to mourn with him and to comfort him' (2:11), yet Job had called them 'miserable comforters' (16:2). The only comfort now asked is the hearing itself: the verb 'hear' is doubled, 'Hear diligently'.

Verse 4

is my complaint to man? — Siach, complaint, is also meditation or prayer. Job's speech is addressed to God: 'I would speak to the Almighty' (13:3), 'mine eye poureth out tears unto God' (16:20). 'Troubled' is qatsar, to be cut short, as in 'much discouraged' (Num 21:4) and 'vexed unto death' (Judg 16:16).

Verse 7

Wherefore do the wicked live — Zophar had said 'the triumphing of the wicked is short' (20:5); Job asks the opposite of what he sees. The question is one Scripture asks elsewhere: 'Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper?' (Jer 12:1), and 'I was envious… when I saw the prosperity of the wicked' (Ps 73:3).

Verse 9

neither is the rod of God upon them — 'Safe' is shalom, peace: their houses are at peace, 'from fear'. The 'rod' (shebet) is the one Job asked to have lifted from himself, 'Let him take his rod away from me' (9:34). Ps 73:5 says the same of the wicked: 'They are not in trouble as other men'.

Verse 13

in a moment go down to the grave — 'Grave' is sheol, the realm of the dead; the wicked reach it 'in a moment', with none of the lingering Job knows: 'there are no bands in their death' (Ps 73:4). 'Wealth' is tov, good things, the 'prosperity' Elihu promises to those who obey and serve (36:11).

Verse 14

Depart from us — These are the words of the wicked as Job reports them; Eliphaz repeats them in 22:17. 'We desire not' is chaphets, to take delight in, meaning that they take no delight in 'the knowledge of thy ways'. Ps 10:4 describes the same posture, 'God is not in all his thoughts'.

Verse 15

What is the Almighty — Shaddai, the name under which God appeared to Abram: 'I am the Almighty God; walk before me' (Gen 17:1). The question has the shape of Pharaoh's 'Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice' (Ex 5:2). The reckoning of 'profit' is the one of Mal 3:14, 'It is vain to serve God'.

Verse 16

the counsel of the wicked is far from me — Job separates himself from the men he has described. 'Counsel' (etsah) is the word of Ps 1:1, 'Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly'. Eliphaz takes the line back in 22:18, 'Yet he filled their houses with good things: but the counsel of the wicked is far from me.'

Verse 17

the candle of the wicked — Ner, a lamp, is Bildad's own word: 'the light of the wicked shall be put out… his candle shall be put out with him' (18:5–6). Job does not deny it happens; he asks 'how oft'. 'Sorrows' is chebel, a cord, a measured portion or a pang, and God 'distributeth' (chalaq) them.

Verse 19

layeth up his iniquity for his children — This is the friends' explanation, which Job answers. The law spoke of 'visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children' (Ex 20:5), but the reckoning Job asks for falls on the man himself: 'he shall know it', and in v.20 'His eyes shall see'. Ezek 18:20 states it: 'The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father.'

Verse 22

Shall any teach God knowledge? — This is the question Paul asks in other words: 'For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?' (Rom 11:34), taking up Isa 40:13–14. 'Those that are high' (ruwm) are the exalted; God is judge of them, so that no man instructs him in how to judge.

Verse 24

His breasts are full of milk — Atin occurs only here and is rendered 'breasts'; it is a receptacle for milk, a pail. 'Marrow' (moach) is the fat of the bones; Prov 3:8 sets 'marrow to thy bones' beside health as the reward of fearing the LORD, there with another word, shiqquy, moisture. Job describes the full vigour of the man who dies at ease (v.23).

Verse 26

They shall lie down alike in the dust — The man who died at ease (v.23) and the one who died in bitterness (v.25) lie in the same dust, and 'the worms shall cover them', as in Isa 14:11, 'the worms cover thee'. Eccl 9:2 says the same of the event: 'one event to the righteous, and to the wicked'. Verse 30 goes past the grave.

Verse 27

the devices which ye wrongfully imagine — Job names what lies behind their words: they mean him. 'Where is the house of the prince?' in v.28 quotes their own point, found in Bildad's 'the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nought' (8:22). The LORD later says to Eliphaz, 'ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath' (42:7).

Verse 30

reserved to the day of destruction — Chasak, to hold back or keep, as in 2 Pet 2:9, 'to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished'. The 'day of wrath' is Paul's phrase in Rom 2:5, 'wrath against the day of wrath'. Job's point is that the reckoning is held back, not that it never comes.

Verse 34

in your answers there remaineth falsehood — Ma'al is treachery or breach of trust, here rendered 'falsehood'; 'in vain' is hebel, breath. The charge is repeated at the close, 'ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath' (42:7), and Job prays for them (42:8).