Job 21:1-9

1 Forsooth Job answered, and said,

2 I pray you, hear ye my words, and do ye penance.

3 Suffer ye me, that I speak; and laugh ye after my words, if it shall seem to you worthy to do so. (Allow ye me, that I speak; and then laugh ye after my words, if it shall seem worthy for you to do so.)

4 Whether my disputing is against man, that skillfully I ought not to be [made] sorry? (Is my disputing against man? have I not good cause, or a good reason, to be impatient?)

5 Perceive ye me, and be ye astonished; and set ye your finger upon your mouth.

6 And when I bethink me, I dread, and trembling shaketh my flesh. (And when I think about all of this, I am afraid, and my flesh shaketh and trembleth.)

7 Why therefore live wicked men? They be enhanced, and strengthened with riches. (And so why do the wicked live so long? Indeed they be exalted, and can enjoy their riches.)

8 Their seed dwelleth before them (Their descendants, or their children, live with them); the company of their kinsmen, and of the sons of their sons, dwelleth in their sight.

9 Their houses be secure, and peaceable; and the rod, or scourge, of God is not upon them. (Their houses be secure, and at peace; and the scourge of God is not upon them.)

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.