Job 21:29-34

29 "Have you not asked wayfaring men, And do you not recognize their witness?

30 "For the ¹wicked is reserved for the day of calamity; They will be led forth at ²the day of fury.

31 "Who will confront * * him with his actions, And who will repay him for what he has done?

32 "While he is carried to the grave, Men will keep watch over his tomb.

33 "The ³clods of the valley will gently cover him; Moreover, ⁴all men will follow after him, While countless * ones go before him.

34 "How then will you vainly ⁵comfort me, For your answers remain full of falsehood?"

Job 21:29-34 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.

Cross References

• 1. Job 20:29; Proverbs 16:4; 2 Peter 2:9
• 2. Job 21:17, 20; Job 40:11
• 3. Job 3:22; Job 17:16
• 4. Job 3:19; Job 24:24
• 5. Job 16:2

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "signs"
• [b] Lit "declare his way to his face"
• [c] Lit "be sweet to him"
• [d] Lit "draw"
• [e] Or "faithlessness"