Job 21 Footnotes

21:7-15 Skeptics point out that Job’s characterization of the success of the wicked, despite their godless lives, contradicts biblical teaching (see 21:10 with Ps 49:12-15). But Job’s issue here was given voice elsewhere in Scripture (e.g., Ps 73:1-14). Biblical writers did not gloss over the seeming contradiction between the prosperity of the wicked and God’s promise of blessing for those who obey him, but their answer came from a change of perspective in which they realized the ultimate destiny of those who disregard God (Ps 73:17-20). The book of Job is a dialogue in which the speakers, including Job, encircled the main issue—God’s righteousness—approaching it from a variety of angles. Along the way some negative (Job) and superficial (the friends) ideas came out, but they should never be taken as the author’s final teaching.