Chapter Twenty-One

Job’s response to Zophar’s speech in the second dialogue. 1–6. Job’s demand for attentive hearing of his words. 7–34. Description of the prosperity of sinners with a refutation of possible objections from his friends.

Job 21:2. Listen carefully to my speech, and let this be your consolation to me. The careful attention of the friends to Job’s words is a sign that they consider them significant, do not regard them as empty words thrown to the wind. This will provide consolation to the sufferer, grieving from the contradictions of his friends, their mockery of him (Job 17:2).

Job 21:3. Bear with me, and I will speak; and after I speak, mock. Perhaps even Zophar, having listened carefully to Job’s speech, might stop his mockery: “after I speak, mock.”

Job 21:4. Is my complaint toward a man? How should I not be impatient? The friends interrupt Job’s speech, oppose him, and partly do so because they consider it unfit on his part to lapse into despondency and irritability, which borders on complaint (Job 4:3-5). In reality, such a state of mind is quite natural. The suffering usually seek sympathy from the people around them. But Job’s speech, more precisely, his lamentation (Heb. sihi, cf. Job 7:13) is not addressed to the people—his friends; he does not expect help from them (Job 13:2) but to God (Job 13:3). And since He, from whom the sufferer expects the resolution of the question about the cause of his misfortunes, does not listen to his cries (Job 9:32; Job 19:7), how can he not fall into despair?

Job 21:5. Look at me and be appalled, and put your hand over your mouth. Instead of reproaching Job for despondency, the friends ought to “put their hand over their mouth,” that is, to be silent (Job 29:9; Prov 30:32; Wis 8:12; Sir 5:14). To this should incline the very feeling of horror which the sight of the sufferer inspires. Job 21:6-13. Now, as before, Job’s speech will be full of impatience and agitation. And yet it should be heard attentively. Job’s agitation is understandable: it is caused by the fact that is insoluble for human reason and disturbing to the righteous—the prosperity of sinners (Ps 72:2-3; Jer 12:1 and following).

Job 21:7. Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and become mighty in strength? Contrary to Zophar’s assurance (Job 20:5), this appears first in longevity and strength (cf. Ps 72:4), which is the portion of the righteous (Job 5:26).

Job 21:8. Their children are with them before their face, and their grandchildren before their eyes. Besides this, the wicked have the happiness to see themselves, like the righteous (Ps 126:3; cf. Job 18:19), surrounded by a numerous family. Among their generations there is no high mortality (“their children and grandchildren are before their face,” cf. Job 5:25), there are no occasions for grief.

Job 21:9. Their houses are safe from fear, and the rod of God is not upon them. And in general the “houses” of the wicked—families, including wives, children, and servants (Gen 7:1)—do not experience, as is common among the pious (Job 5:24), fear—they do not suffer the blows of divine wrath (cf. Ps 72:5).

Job 21:10. Their ox impregnates without fail; their cow bears without miscarriage. The happiness of sinners is evident in the successful conduct of their household—in the increase of herds (Ps 143:13), thanks to the absence of cases of unfortunate births among domestic animals (Gen 31:38).

Job 21:11. Like a flock, they send out their little ones, and their children leap. Job 21:12. They sing at the sound of the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice at the sounds of the pipe; Making the most of their success in all things, the wicked lead a merry, carefree life. Their children amuse themselves with appropriate games, and their elders delight their hearing with song and playing on musical instruments (Isa 5:12).

Job 21:13. they spend their days in happiness and go down to Sheol in an instant. The happy life ends with an easy death: suddenly, without illnesses, the sinners descend to Sheol (cf. Job 18:13).

Job 21:14. Yet they say to God: Depart from us, we do not wish to know your ways! Job 21:15. What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit would we get from seeking Him? Job 21:16. Behold, their prosperity is not in their hands. The counsel of the wicked be far from me! By their conduct sinners do not deserve happiness (“their prosperity is not in their hands” v. 16), because they deliberately (“we do not wish to know”) reject God, the way of life He has appointed for man (“way,” cf. Isa 58:2), and consider service to Him useless (v. 15; cf. Mal 3:14). And if prosperity is given to them, then clearly it contradicts the theory of the friends about earthly retribution. By the very fact of the prosperity of the wicked, it is wholly refuted. Happiness is given to sinners easily, service to God is difficult, and yet Job would not wish to be in their place: “the counsel of the wicked be far from me” (cf. Job 17:9).

Job 21:17. How often does the lamp of the wicked go out? How often does disaster come upon them, and does He apportion anguish to them in His anger? Job 21:18. They are like straw before the wind and like chaff that the whirlwind carries away. The theory of earthly retribution denied by Job cannot be proved by cases of misfortunes befalling sinners. As shown by the interrogative form of speech (“how often?” Heb. kamma, cf. Job 7:19), in his opinion they constitute rare phenomena. The lamp of the wicked is rarely extinguished (Job 18:5-6); disaster comes upon them (Job 18:12), and God’s appointed lot of suffering overtakes them. Similarly, they are rarely subject to sudden destruction (v. 18; cf. Ps 1:4; Isa 40:24).

Job 21:19. You say: God stores up his iniquity for his children. Let Him repay the man himself, so he would know it. Job 21:20. Let his own eyes see his destruction, and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. Job 21:21. For what does he care about his house after him, when the number of his months is cut short? Job’s view cannot be refuted even by the position of his friends that sinners are punished in the person of their children (Job 5:4). The misfortunes of the children cannot be his misfortunes, since after death (“when the number of his months is cut short” v. 21) he knows nothing of the fate of his offspring (Job 14:21; Eccl 9:5-6). Therefore, whoever sinned must be punished (vv. 19–20; cf. Ezek 18:4), must himself drink the cup of divine wrath (v. 20, cf. Ps 74:9).

Job 21:22. But can man teach God wisdom, since He judges those on high? By insisting that there is a strict earthly retribution, maintaining its invariability (Job 18:4) and its primordial character in mankind (Job 20:4), the friends want to be wiser than God, they prescribe laws of governance to Him, who in His wisdom is immeasurably above mankind: “since He judges those on high”—the heavenly beings (Heb. ramim; cf. Job 4:18; Ps 77:69; Isa 24:21). They want to teach Him who governs the heaven how to govern the earth!

Job 21:23. One dies in the full vigor of his life, completely at peace and at ease; Job 21:24. his body full of vigor and his bones moistened with marrow. Job 21:25. Another dies with a bitter soul, never tasting any good. Job 21:26. And they both lie in the dust, and worms cover them. For divine governance follows completely different principles. It knows no retribution neither here on earth nor after death. One, the wicked man, dies in a state of complete outward well-being (“in the full vigor of his life”; cf. Ps 37:4), with all the marks of a happily lived life (v. 24; cf. Isa 58:11); the other—the righteous man goes to the grave, having experienced all the bitterness of a life condemned to suffering (“with a bitter soul,” cf. Job 3:20). For the righteous and the wicked there is no retribution on earth; there is none after death either. Both alike will rest in the grave, will become prey for worms (cf. Job 17:14; Eccl 9:2).

Job 21:27. I know your thoughts well, and the schemes which you weave against me. Job 21:28. You will say: Where is the house of the prince, and where the tent in which the wicked dwelt? Against the view expressed by Job is the repeated assertion of the friends that one of the proofs of the punishment of sinners is the destruction of his dwelling (Job 8:22). In view of the possibility of its repetition in the present case (“where is the house of the prince?”) Job brings forward data that weaken the force of this consideration.

Job 21:29. Have you not asked those who travel, and do you not regard their observations, Job 21:30. that the wicked man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is protected in the day of wrath? These are the testimonies of those who have seen and heard much—travelers—that is, data bearing the character of universality, ubiquity. They affirm that the wicked does not suffer misfortunes, escapes destruction.

Job 21:31. Who will declare his way to his face, and who will repay him for what he has done? And if God Himself spares the sinner, then all the more no one among men dares to reproach and convict him of his wrongs and punish him.

Job 21:32. He is borne to the grave and a watch is kept over his tomb. Not reproached by anyone during his lifetime, the wicked enjoys signs of respect and honor even after death. He is respectfully conducted to his grave, and his memory does not fade, as Bildad asserts (Job 18:17), but continues to live: “a watch is kept over his tomb”—either a monument of some kind, or simply preserving it from destruction.

Job 21:33. The clods of the valley are sweet to him; all men follow after him, and those who go before him are without number. Honorably buried, undisturbed by the ill-speaking of posterity, the wicked sleeps peacefully in the “clods of the valley” (Job 38:38)—the favorite burial place in the East, and the happiness which he enjoyed throughout his life does not inspire in his descendants a feeling of horror (Job 18:20) but rather a desire to imitate him (cf. Eccl 4:15-16), just as he too followed in the footsteps of his predecessors.

Job 21:34. How then can you console me with emptiness? Your answers contain nothing but deception. The absence of retribution makes the counsel and promises of the friends unfulfilled—that under the condition of turning to God Job will obtain earthly happiness.