Job 21

After a short appeal to the feelings of his friends, Job replies again to their main argument; maintaining that the wicked are often eminently prosperous in this world, and that man is incompetent to judge of the dispensations of God from present appearances (7-34). In closing this second part of the great colloquy, the patriarch has in view not only the insinuations of Zophar, but the reasonings of the other two.

2 let this be your consolations. Comfort me, not by speaking, but by listening.

3 mock on. Literally, “do thou mock on,” an address to Zophar. “Suffer me,” in the former part of the verse, is “Suffer ye me,” including all three.

4 should not my spirit be troubled? “My controversy is not so much with you as with God; and having such an antagonist it is not surprising that my spirit is impatient.” The added words in italics, it were so, are not in the original, and obscure the sense.

5. Mark me. Or, “Look at me”; in silent amazement at the sufferings which have come upon me, the remembrance of which makes me tremble (6).

7. Wherefore do the wicked live, etc.? Job directly controverts the assertions of his friends, adducing facts of human experience, and in affecting contrast with his own lot: see xv. 21-24; xviii. 19; xx. 9, 10, 27, 28.

12. They take the timbrel, etc. Rather, “sing to the (accompaniment of) the timbrel.” The word rendered “take” literally means “lift up”; i.e., the voice.

organ. Properly, “pipe.”

13 wealth. Or, “prosperity.”

in a moment go down to the grave (Sheol). Without lingering disease like Job’s, or the dread and pains of death.

14. Therefore, etc. All this they enjoy, and yet they have said unto God, etc. There is here assigned a twofold ground for irreligion—a perverse will, “we desire not,” etc., and a sceptical spirit, as shown in the questions, ver. 15.

16. Lo, their good is not in their hand, etc. Rather (as a reply to his friends), “Lo! is not their good in their hand?” (i.e., have they not here constant prosperity?) but, though this is the case, “far from me be the counsel of the wicked.”

17. How oft, etc.? A question, not an exclamation; implying that this seldom happens. Having described the prosperity of the wicked, Job asks how often the ills which his friends had spoken of, and which he enumerates in vers. 16-21, did in

19. God layeth up his iniquity, etc. “Do ye say, ‘God is storing up his iniquity for [requital to] his children?’ Let Him requite the man himself, that he may know it: let his own eyes see, and let him drink of the Almighty’s wrath. For what concern hath he in his house after him?” etc.: ep. R.V.

22. Shall any teach God knowledge? Job implies that his friends had irreverently attributed their opinions to God. He then states his view, that God varies His proceedings in various cases.

those that are high. The high-minded. Some commentators less probably understand the angels.

23 in his full strength. Literally, “in his perfection,” either of strength or of prosperity.

24. His breasts. Delitzsch renders: “His vessels,” e.g., pails, pans, are full of milk (from the flocks).

25. They shall lie down, etc. Rather, as R.V., “They lie down alike in the dust, and the worm covereth them.” Dissimilar in life, they are alike in death.

28 the prince. Both here and in Isa. xiii. 2, the word rendered “prince,” or “noble,” is used in a bad sense for tyrant.

29 their tokens. Or, “proofs.” You may inquire of travellers, who have had many opportunities of observation, for the proofs of what I say.

30 the wicked is reserved, etc. Rather, as R.V., marg., “the wicked is spared in the day of destruction, and led away in the day of wrath”; intimating that the wicked are not punished here, as Zophar and his companions had asserted.

31. Who shall declare his way to his face? i.e., Who dares to accuse and resist him?

32. Yet shall he be brought, etc. Rather, “And he, he is borne to the graves (i.e., the family burial-place), and over the tomb he keepeth watch”; i.e., either his memory shall be preserved by a sepulchral monument, or, “watch shall be kept over his tomb.” This is opposed to Bildad’s assertion in xviii. 17. The prosperity of the wicked in this world sometimes outlasts his life. He may be brought with funeral honours to the tomb of his fathers, and his monument remain amidst the verdure of the garden (33): ep. 1 Kings xvi. 6, 28; 2 Kings xxi. 18; and note on 1 Sam. xxv. 1.

33 every man shall draw after him, etc. Referring to the long procession of a public funeral.