Job 21:24-34

24 sus ijares están repletos de grosura, húmeda está la médula de sus huesos,

25 mientras otro muere con alma amargada, y sin haber probado nada bueno.

26 Juntos yacen en el polvo, y los gusanos los cubren.

27 He aquí, yo conozco vuestros pensamientos, y los designios con los cuales me dañaríais.

28 Porque decís: "¿Dónde está la casa del noble, y dónde la tienda donde moraban los impíos?"

29 ¿No habéis preguntado a los caminantes, y no reconocéis su testimonio?

30 Porque el impío es preservado para el día de la destrucción; ellos serán conducidos en el día de la ira.

31 ¿Quién le declarará en su cara sus acciones, y quién le pagará por lo que ha hecho?

32 Mientras es llevado al sepulcro, velarán sobre su túmulo.

33 Los terrones del valle suavemente le cubrirán, y le seguirán todos los hombres, e innumerables otros irán delante de él.

34 ¿Cómo, pues, me consoláis en vano? Vuestras respuestas están llenas de falsedad.

Job 21:24-34 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.