NOTES for Job 21:1-34
1 But Job answered and said, |
2 Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations. |
3 Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on. |
4 As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled? |
5 Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth. |
6 Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh. |
7 Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? |
8 Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. |
9 Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. |
10 Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. |
11 They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. |
12 They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. |
13 They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. |
14 Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. |
15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? |
16 Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me. |
17 How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger. |
18 They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away. |
19 God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know it. |
20 His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty. |
21 For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst? |
22 Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high. |
23 One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. |
24 His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow. |
25 And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. |
26 They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them. |
27 Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me. |
28 For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked? |
29 Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens, |
30 That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath. |
31 Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done? |
32 Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb. |
33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him. |
34 How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood? |
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Job's friends had so often repeated to him the familiar truths about the fate of the wicked that Job finally decided to answer their instruction seriously. He demolishes the common ideas about the reward of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked in this world. He says to his friends: look around; are there not many wicked people who prosper? They live comfortably and die peacefully, thinking neither about God nor about the commandments (vv. 7-15). Job himself, of course, understands that the wicked are mistaken when they think they achieve everything by themselves. He has no intention of becoming like them by denying God's involvement in human life (v. 16). But the fact remains: in a fallen world, the fate of the wicked is often more prosperous than the fate of the righteous (vv. 17-18).
One could suppose, in keeping with ideas widely held in those days, that children would be punished for the sins of their fathers. But besides the fact that punishing some people in place of others can hardly be considered just, it is not really punishment at all: after his death the wicked man will no longer know anything about what is happening in the world of the living, including what happens to his own children (vv. 19-21).
Of course, God knows better when, whom, and how to judge (v. 22), but in that case the question of justice remains unanswered, because in a world where the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer, there is no room to speak of it (vv. 23-25). And if we remember that postexilic Judaism knows nothing of recompense after death, and death merely makes everyone equal (vv. 25-26), then it turns out that there is no justice not only in the world of the living, but also in the world of shadows. If that is so, then all the lofty words of Job's friends about the punishment awaiting the wicked are worthless (vv. 27-34). Of course, Job does not object to his friends simply for the sake of argument. For him, the prosperity of the wicked and the disasters of the righteous become another proof that God, as it appears, has no concern for people. He sees this situation as part of the absurdity that the world and his own life have become for him after the God of religion was no longer enough for him. And commonplace maxims about good and evil could no longer help him.
Readings for 5 February 2025
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