Job 21:26-34

26 And yet they shall sleep together in the dust, and worms shall cover them.
27 Surely I know your thoughts, and your unjust judgments against me.
28 For you say: Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?
29 Ask any one of them that go by the way, and you shall perceive that he knoweth these same things.
30 Because the wicked man is reserved to the day of destruction, and he shall be brought to the day of wrath.
31 Who shall reprove his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?
32 He shall be brought to the graves, and shall watch in the heap of the dead.
33 He hath been acceptable to the gravel of Cocytus, and he shall draw every man after him, and there are innumerable before him.
34 How then do ye comfort me in vain, whereas your answer is shewn to be repugnant to truth?

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.

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