Job 21:7-16

The success of the wicked

7 Why do the wicked live, grow old, and even become strong?

8 Their children are always with them, their offspring in their sight,

9 their houses safe from dread, God's punishing stick not upon them.

10 Their bull always breeds successfully; their cows give birth and never miscarry.

11 They send forth their little ones like sheep; their infants bounce around.

12 They raise drum and lyre, rejoice at the sound of a flute.

13 They spend their days contentedly, go down to the grave peacefully.

14 They say to God, "Turn away from us; we take no pleasure in knowing your ways;

15 who is the Almighty that we should serve him, and what can we gain if we meet him?"

16 Look, isn't their well-being the work of their own hands? A sinner's logic is beyond me.

Job 21:7-16 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

• [a]. Heb Sheol
• [b]. Heb Shaddai or Mountain One