Job 21:17-27

17 "Still, how often does it happen that the wicked fail, or disaster strikes, or they get their just deserts?
18 How often are they blown away by bad luck? Not very often.
19 You might say, 'God is saving up the punishment for their children.' I say, 'Give it to them right now so they'll know what they've done!'
20 They deserve to experience the effects of their evil, feel the full force of God's wrath firsthand.
21 What do they care what happens to their families after they're safely tucked away in the grave? Fancy Funerals with All the Trimmings
22 "But who are we to tell God how to run his affairs? He's dealing with matters that are way over our heads.
23 Some people die in the prime of life, with everything going for them -
24 fat and sassy.
25 Others die bitter and bereft, never getting a taste of happiness.
26 They're laid out side by side in the cemetery, where the worms can't tell one from the other.
27 "I'm not deceived. I know what you're up to, the plans you're cooking up to bring me down.

Job 21:17-27 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.

Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.