Job 21:4-14

4 As for me, is my complaint to man? And if so, why should not my spirit be troubled?

5 Look upon me and be astonished and lay your hand upon your mouth.

6 Even I myself, when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling takes hold on my flesh.

7 Why do the wicked live and become old and even increase in riches?

8 Their seed is with them, established in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes.

9 Their houses are safe from fear; neither is the rod of God upon them.

10 Their cows conceive, and do not abort; their cows calve and do not cast forth their young.

11 They send forth their little ones like a flock of sheep, and their children dance.

12 They jump at the sound of the timbrel and harp and rejoice at the sound of the organ.

13 They spend their days in pleasure and in a moment go down to Sheol.

14 Therefore, they say unto God, Depart from us; for we do not desire the knowledge of thy ways.

Job 21:4-14 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.