Job 21:7-17

7 Wherefore do the ungodly live, and grow old even in wealth?

8 Their seed is according to desire, and their children are in sight.

9 Their houses are prosperous, neither any where fear, neither is there a scourge from the Lord upon them.

10 Their cow does not cast her calf, and their with young is safe, and does not miscarry.

11 And they remain as an unfailing flock, and their children play before , taking up the psaltery and harp;

12 and they rejoice at the voice of a song.

13 And they spend their days in wealth, and fall asleep in the rest of the grave.

14 Yet says to the Lord, Depart from me; I desire not to know thy ways.

15 What is the Mighty One, that we should serve him? and what profit is there that we should approach him?

16 For their good things were in hands, but he regards not the works of the ungodly.

17 Nevertheless, the lamp of the ungodly also shall be put out, and destruction shall come upon them, and pangs of vengeance shall seize them.

Job 21:7-17 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.