Job 21:21-31

21 For what pleasure should he have in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
22 Can any teach God knowledge? And he it is that judgeth those that are high.
23 One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet;
24 His sides are full of fat, and the marrow of his bones is moistened;
25 And another dieth in bitterness of soul, and hath not tasted good:
26 Together they lie down in the dust, and the worms cover them.
27 Lo, I know your thoughts, and the devices ye wrongfully imagine against me.
28 For ye say, Where is the house of the noble? and where the tent of the dwellings of the wicked?
29 Have ye not asked the wayfarers? and do ye not regard their tokens:
30 That the wicked is reserved for the day of calamity? They are led forth to the day of wrath.
31 Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?

Job 21:21-31 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.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Or 'his vessels are full of milk.'
  • [b]. Lit. 'eaten.'
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.