Job 21:1-8

1 Job replied:
2 "Now listen to me carefully, please listen, at least do me the favor of listening.
3 Put up with me while I have my say - then you can mock me later to your heart's content.
4 "It's not you I'm complaining to - it's God. Is it any wonder I'm getting fed up with his silence?
5 Take a good look at me. Aren't you appalled by what's happened? No! Don't say anything. I can do without your comments.
6 When I look back, I go into shock, my body is racked with spasms.
7 Why do the wicked have it so good, live to a ripe old age and get rich?
8 They get to see their children succeed, get to watch and enjoy their grandchildren.

Job 21:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 21

This chapter contains Job's reply to Zophar's preceding discourse, in which, after a preface exciting attention to what he was about to say, Job 21:1-6; he describes by various instances the prosperity of wicked men, even of the most impious and atheistical, and which continues with them as long as they live, contrary to what Zophar had asserted in Job 20:5, Job 21:7-15; as for himself, he disapproved of such wicked men as much as any, and owns that destruction comes upon them sooner or later, and on their posterity also, Job 21:16-21; but as God is a God of knowledge, and needs no instruction from any, and is a sovereign Being, he deals with men in different ways; some die in great ease, and peace, and prosperity, and others in bitterness and distress, but both are alike brought to the dust, Job 21:22-26; and whereas he was aware of their censures of him, and their objections to what he had said, he allows that the wicked are reserved to the day of destruction, which is future, and in the mean while lie in the grave, where all must follow; yet they are not repaid or rewarded in this life, that remains to be done in another world, Job 21:27-33; and concludes, that their consolation with respect to him was vain, and falsehood was in their answers, Job 21:34.

Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.