Job 21:1-9

1 Listen to what I am saying;
2 that is all the comfort I ask from you.
3 Give me a chance to speak and then, when I am through, sneer if you like.
4 My quarrel is not with mortals; I have good reason to be impatient.
5 Look at me. Isn't that enough to make you stare in shocked silence?
6 When I think of what has happened to me, I am stunned, and I tremble and shake.
7 Why does God let evil people live, let them grow old and prosper?
8 They have children and grandchildren, and live to watch them all grow up.
9 God does not bring disaster on their homes; they never have to live in terror.

Job 21:1-9 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.

Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.