Job 24:20-25

20 The womb forgets them; the worm finds them sweet; they are ¹no longer remembered, so wickedness is broken like ²a tree.'

21 "They wrong the barren, childless woman, and do no good to the widow.

22 Yet God^[a] prolongs the life of the mighty by his power; they rise up when they despair of life.

23 He gives them security, and they are supported, and his ³eyes are upon their ways.

24 They are exalted ⁴a little while, and then ⁵are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are ⁶cut off like the heads of grain.

25 If it is ⁷not so, who will prove me a liar and show that there is nothing in what I say?"

Job 24:20-25 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 24

This chapter contains the second part of Job's answer to the last discourse of Eliphaz, in which he shows that wicked men, those of the worst characters, prosper in the world, and go through it with impunity; he lays down this as a certain truth, that though no time is hid from God, yet they that are most familiar with him, and know most of him, do not see, and cannot observe, any days of his for judging and punishing wicked men in, this life, Job 24:1; and instances in men guilty of injustice, violence, oppression, cruelty, and inhumanity, to their neighbours, and yet God lays not folly to them, or charges them with sin, and punishes them for it, Job 24:2-12; and in persons that commit the most atrocious crimes in secret, such as murderers, adulterers, and thieves, Job 24:13-17; he allows that there is a curse upon their portion, and that the grave shall consume them, and they shall be remembered no more, Job 24:18-20; and because of their ill treatment of others, though they may be in safety and prosperity, and be exalted for a while, they shall be brought low and cut off by death, but generally speaking are not punished in this life, Job 24:21-24; and concludes with the greatest assurance of being in the right, and having truth on his side, Job 24:25.

Cross References

• 1. [Proverbs 10:7]
• 2. [Job 18:16]
• 3. See Psalms 11:4; Proverbs 15:3
• 4. Psalms 37:10
• 5. [Job 27:19]
• 6. Job 14:2
• 7. [Job 9:24]

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew he