Job 21:10-20

10 Su toro engendra sin fallar, su vaca pare y no aborta.

11 Envían fuera a sus pequeños cual rebaño, y sus niños andan saltando.

12 Cantan con pandero y arpa, y al son de la flauta se regocijan.

13 Pasan sus días en prosperidad, y de repente descienden al Seol.

14 Y dicen a Dios: "¡Apártate de nosotros! No deseamos el conocimiento de tus caminos.

15 "¿Quién es el Todopoderoso, para que le sirvamos, y qué ganaríamos con rogarle?"

16 He aquí, no está en mano de ellos su prosperidad; el consejo de los impíos lejos está de mí.

17 ¿Cuántas veces es apagada la lámpara de los impíos, o cae sobre ellos su calamidad? ¿Reparte Dios dolores en su ira?

18 ¿Son como paja delante del viento, y como tamo que arrebata el torbellino?

19 Decís: "Dios guarda la iniquidad de un hombre para sus hijos." Que Dios le pague para que aprenda.

20 Vean sus ojos su ruina, y beba de la furia del Todopoderoso.

Job 21:10-20 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.