Job 21:19

19 Dios guardará para los hijos de ellos su violencia; y le dará su pago, para que conozca

Job 21:19 Meaning and Commentary

Job 21:19

God layeth up his iniquity for his children
This is a prevention of an objection which Job foresaw his friends would make, and therefore takes it up and answers to it; you will say, that, be it so, that the wicked are for the most part prosperous, and their prosperity continues; God does not punish them now for their sins in their own persons, yet he will punish them in their children, for whom he reserves the punishment of their iniquity: this way go many of the Jewish commentators ^F25, in which they are followed by many Christian interpreters ^F26; and, as it seems, very rightly; now this Job grants, that so it is, God takes notice of the iniquities of men, and lays them up in his mind, and puts them down in the book of his remembrance; he reserves the punishment of their iniquities for their children, iniquity being often put for the punishment of it; this is laid up among his stores of vengeance, and is treasured up against the day of wrath; and when they have filled up the measure of their father's sins by their own transgressions, the deserved punishment shall be inflicted, according to ( Exodus 20:5 ) ; but this will not clear the case, nor support the notions and sentiments of Job's friends, who had all along given out, that wicked men are punished themselves as well as their children; and that, if they are at any time in prosperous circumstances, it is only for a little while; and therefore agreeably to such notions God should take other methods with them, not punish their children only, but themselves, as Job argues in answer to the objection in ( Job 21:18 Job 21:19 ) :

he rewarded him, and he shall know [it];
or "he should reward him, and he should know it" ^F1; and so the word "should" is to be put instead of "shall" in ( Job 21:20 ) , which directs to the true sense of these clauses: and the meaning of Job is, that according to the sentiments of his friends, God should reward a wicked man while he lives in his own body, and not in his posterity only; he should render to them a just recompence of reward of their evil works, the demerit of their sins; and in such a manner, that they should know it, be sensible of it, and feel it themselves, and perceive the evil of sin in the punishment of it; see ( Hosea 9:7 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 Nachmanides, Jarchi, Ben Gersom, Bar Tzemach.
F26 Beza, Cocceius, Schultens.
F1 (edyw wyla Mlvy) "redderet illi, et (hoc) sciret", Beza; "retribueret ipsi potius, et sentiret", Cocceius.

Job 21:19 In-Context

17 ¡Oh cuántas veces el candil de los impíos es apagado, y viene sobre ellos su contrición, y con su ira Dios les reparte dolores

18 Serán como la paja delante del viento, y como el tamo que arrebata el torbellino

19 Dios guardará para los hijos de ellos su violencia; y le dará su pago, para que conozca

20 Verán sus ojos su quebranto, y beberá de la ira del Todopoderoso

21 Porque ¿qué deleite tendrá él de su casa después de sí, siendo cortado el número de sus meses