Job 21:20-30

20 Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what does he care for his house after him, When the number of his months is cut off?
22 "Shall any teach God knowledge, Seeing he judges those who are high?
23 One dies in his full strength, Being wholly at ease and quiet.
24 His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.
25 Another dies in bitterness of soul, And never tastes of good.
26 They lie down alike in the dust, The worm covers them.
27 "Behold, I know your thoughts, The devices with which you would wrong me.
28 For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?'
29 Haven't you asked wayfaring men? Don't you know their evidences,
30 That the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity? That they are led forth to the day of wrath?

Job 21:20-30 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.

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