Job 21:27-34

27 So I know you, that ye presumptuously attack me:
28 so that ye will say, Where is the house of the prince? and where is the covering of the tabernacles of the ungodly?
29 Ask those that go by the way, and do not disown their tokens.
30 For the wicked hastens to the day of destruction: they shall be led away for the day of his vengeance.
31 Who will tell him his way to his face, whereas he has done ? who shall recompense him?
32 And he has been led away to the tombs, and he has watched over the heaps.
33 The stones of the valley have been sweet to him, and every man shall depart after him, and innumerable before him.
34 How then do ye comfort me in vain? whereas I have no rest from your molestation.

Job 21:27-34 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.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.