Job 21:26-34

26 They lie down alike in the dust, and the worm covers them both.
27 "Look, I know what you are thinking and your plans to do me wrong.
28 You ask, 'Where is the great man's house? Where is the tent where the wicked once lived?'
29 Haven't you ever questioned travelers? Don't you accept their testimony
30 that the evil man is saved on the day of disaster, rescued on the day of wrath?
31 So who will confront him with his ways? Who will repay him for what he has done?
32 For he is carried off to the grave, people keep watch over his tomb,
33 the clods of the valley are sweet to him; so everyone follows his example, just as before him were countless others.
34 "Why offer me such meaningless comfort? Of your answers, only the perfidy remains."

Job 21:26-34 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.

Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.