Job 21:21

For what pleasure [hath] he in his house after him,.... As, on the one hand, the prosperity of his children after his decease gives him no pleasure and delight, so, on the other hand, the calamities

For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst? The argument of the friends, in proof of Job 21:20. What pleasure can he have from his house (children) when he is dead?

What pleasure hath he in his house after him? or, for what desire, or care, or study hath he for or concerning (as beth is oft used) his house, i.e. his children? When he is dead and gone, he cares not what becomes of his children, as irreligion commonly makes men unnatural; he is not concerned nor affected with their felicity or misery. See . And therefore God doth punish both him and his children whilst he lives, ,20. Or thus, What delight can he take in the thoughts of the glory and happiness of his posterity, when he finds that he is dying a violent and untimely death? So this is a further proof that this man is neither happy in himself, nor with reference to his posterity. When the number of his months is cut off in the midst; when that number of months, which by his constitution and the course of nature he might have lived, is diminished and cut off by the hand of violence.

Job 21:21 For what pleasure [hath] he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?Ver. 21. For what pleasure hath he in his house after him?] Hoc est, Omnia impiorum, etiam post mortem eorum, maledicta erunt, saith Brentius; All that belongs to the wicked shall be accursed, even after death, though some are so desperately set upon wickedness that they will have their swing, whatsoever come of it, either to themselves or their children after them. Sic fere αστοργοι sunt improbi, so unnatural they are, many of them, that, so they may satisfy their own sinful and sensual desires, let their posterity sink or swim, let them shift as they can, they care not, εμουθανοντοςγαιαμιχθητωπυρι (Sueton. de Tiberio). Dives in hell seemed somewhat careful for his brethren; but self’ love moved him to it; for he knew well that if they were damned he should be double damned, because they had sinned by his example and encouragement. When the number of his months shall be cut off in the midst] Mortis periphrasis; that is, when he shall die, saith one. But that is not all. Impius moritur importune, the wicked dieth in an ill time for himself; then when it were better for him to do anything than to die. Many of them live not out half their days, Psalms 55:23 Ecclesiastes 7:17. God cut off Eli’ s two sons in one day; and further threatened their father that there should not be an old man left in his house for ever, 1 Samuel 2:32. Hezekiah, when he thought he should die, complained that he had cut off his life like a weaver, Isaiah 38:12, who cuts off the web from the thrum. But the saints (such as he was) die not till the best time, not till that time when, if they were rightly informed, they would even desire to die.

Verse 21. For what pleasure hath he in his house after him] What may happen to his posterity he neither knows nor cares for, as he is now numbered with the dead, and numbered with them before he had lived out half his years. Some have translated the verse thus: "Behold how speedily God destroys the house of the wicked after him! How he shortens the number of his months!"

7–21. This great mystery of the prosperity of the wicked in God’s providence Job now unfolds on both its sides: first, they and all belonging to them prosper, and they die in peace, although in conscious godlessness they bade the Almighty depart from them, Job 21:7-16; and second, negatively, examples of calamity befalling them are few, Job 21:17-21.

For what pleasure hath he ... - That is, what happiness shall he have in his family? This, it seems to me, is designed to be a reference to their sentiments, or a statement by Job of what “they” maintained.

21. Pleasure — ητφ sometimes bears a wider meaning of “concern,” “interest,” (Job 32:3; Isaiah 58:3,) “business.” What interest has he in his house (family) after he is dead?