Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 21:1
But Job answered and said,
Job 21:1-34
But Job answered and said.
Jobs third answer
There is more logic and less passion in this address than in any of Jobs preceding speeches. He felt the dogma of the friends to be opposed–
I. To his consciousness of rectitude. If their dogma was true, he must be a sinner above all the rest, for his sufferings were of the most aggravated character. But he knew that he was not a great sinner.
1. This consciousness urged him to speak.
2. It gave him confidence in speaking.
3. It inspired him with religious solemnity. The providential ways of God with man are often terribly mysterious. Under these mysterious events solemn silence rather than controversy is most befitting us.
II. To his observation of facts.
1. He saw wicked men about him. He notes their hostility to God, and their devotion to self.
2. He saw such wicked men very prosperous. They prosper in their persons, their property, and their posterity.
3. He saw wicked men happy in living and dying. Job states these things as a refutation of the dogma that his friends held and urged against him.
III. To his historic knowledge. He refers to the testimony of other men.
1. They observed, as I have, that the wicked are often protected in common calamities.
2. That few, if any, are found to deal out punishment to wicked men in power.
3. That the Wicked man goes to his grave with as much peace and honour as other men.
IV. To his theory of providence. Though nothing here expresses Jobs belief in a state of retribution beyond the grave, we think it is implied. I see not how there can be any real religion, which is supreme love to the Author of our being, where there is not a well-settled faith in a future state. Conclusion. Gods system of governing the race has been the same from the beginning. He has never dealt with mankind here on the ground of character. True, there are occasional flashes of Divine retribution which reveal moral distinctions and require moral conduct; but they are only occasional, limited, and prophetic. No stronger argument for a future state of full and adequate retribution it would be possible to have, than that which is furnished by Gods system of governing the world. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXI
Job expresses himself as puzzled by the dispensations of Divine
Providence, because of the unequal distribution of temporal
goods; he shows that wicked men often live long, prosper in
their families, in their flocks, and in all their substance,
and yet live in defiance of God and sacred things, 1-16.
At other times their prosperity is suddenly blasted, and they
and their families come to ruin, 17-21.
God, however, is too wise to err; and he deals out various lots
to all according to his wisdom: some come sooner, others later,
to the grave: the strong and the weak, the prince and the
peasant, come to a similar end in this life; but the wicked
are reserved for a day of wrath, 22-33.
He charges his friends with falsehood in their pretended
attempts to comfort him, 34.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXI
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But Job answered and said. In reply to what Zophar had asserted, concerning the prosperity of the wicked being only for a short time, Job 20:5; the contrary to which he most clearly proves, and that in many instances their prosperity continues as long as they live; that they die in it, and it is enjoyed by their posterity after them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1 Then began Job, and said:
2 Hear, oh hear, my speech,
And let this be instead of your consolations.
3 Suffer me, and I will speak,
And after I have spoken thou mayest mock.
4 As for me, then, doth my complaint concern man,
Or wherefore should I not become impatient?
5 Turn ye to me and be astonished,
And lay your hand upon your mouth.
6 Even if I think of it I am bewildered,
And my flesh taketh hold on trembling – :
The friends, far from being able to solve the enigma of Job’s affliction, do not once recognise the mystery as such. They cut the knot by wounding Job most deeply by ever more and more frivolous accusations. Therefore he entreats them to be at least willing to listen ( with the gerund) to his utterance ( ) respecting the unsolved enigma; then ( Waw apodosis imper.) shall this attention supply the place of their consolations, i.e., be comforting to him, which their previous supposed consolations could not be. They are to bear with him, i.e., without interruption allow him to answer for himself ( with Kametz before the tone, as Jon 1:12, comp. , 1Ki 20:33, not as Hirz. thinks under the influence of the distinctive accent, but according to the established rule, Ges. 60, rem. 1); then he will speak ( contrast to the “ye” in without further force), and after he has expressed himself they may mock. It is, however, not (as Olshausen corrects), but (in a voluntative signific. = ), since Job here addresses himself specially to Zophar, the whole of whose last speech must have left the impression on him of a bitter sarcasm ( sarkasmo’s from sarka’zein in the sense of Job 19:22), and has dealt him the freshest deep blow. In Job 21:4 is not to be understood otherwise than as in Job 7:13; Job 9:27; Job 10:1; Job 23:2, and is to be translated “my complaint.” Then the prominently placed is to be taken, after Eze 33:17, Ges. 121, 3, as an emphatic strengthening of the “my”: he places his complaint in contrast with another. This emphasizing is not easily understood, if one, with Hupf., explains: nonne hominis est querela mea , so that is equivalent to (which here in the double question is doubly doubtful), and is the sign of the cause. Schultens and Berg, who translate more humano , explain similarly, by again bringing their suspicious comparativum
(Note: In the passage from Ibn-Kissa quoted above, p. 421, Schultens, as Fleischer assures me, has erroneously read Arab. lmchalb instead of kmchalb , having been misled by the frequent failing of the upper stroke of the Arab. k, and in general Arab. l is never = k, and also never = , as has been imagined since Schultens.)
here to bear upon it. The by (if it may not also be compared with Job 12:8) may certainly be expected to denote those to whom the complaint is addressed. We translate: As for me, then, does my complaint concern men? The which is placed at the beginning of the sentence comes no less under the rule, Ges. 145, 2, than 121, 3. In general, sufferers seek to obtain alleviation of their sufferings by imploring by words and groans the pity of sympathizing men; the complaint, however, which the three hear from him is of a different kind, for he has long since given up the hope of human sympathy, – his complaint concerns not men, but God (comp. Job 16:20).
(Note: An Arabian proverb says: “The perfect patience is that which allows no complaint to be uttered ila el – chalq against creatures (men).”)
He reminds them of this by asking further: or ( , as Job 8:3; Job 34:17; Job 40:9, not: and if it were so, as it is explained by Nolde contrary to the usage of the language) why (interrogative upon interrogative: an quare , as Psa 94:9, , an nonne) should not my spirit (disposition of mind, ) be short, i.e., why should I not be short-tempered (comp. Jdg 10:16; Zec 11:8, with Prov. 13:29) = impatient? Drr, in his commentatio super voce , 1776, 4, explains the expression habito simul halitus, qui iratis brevis esse solet, respectu , but the signification breath is far from the nature of the language here; signifies emotional excitement (comp. Job 15:13), either long restrained (with ), or not allowing itself to be restrained and breaking out after a short time ( ). That which causes his vexation to burst forth is such that the three also, if they would attentively turn to him who thus openly expresses himself, will be astonished and lay their hand on their mouth (comp. Job 29:9; Job 40:4), i.e., they must become dumb in recognition of the puzzle, – a puzzle insoluble to them, but which is nevertheless not to be denied. is found in Codd. and among grammarians both as Hiph. hashammu (Kimchi) and as Hoph. , or what is the same, hoshshammu (Abulwalid) with the sharpening of the first radical, which also occurs elsewhere in the Hoph. of this verb (Lev 26:34.) and of others (Olsh. 259, b, 260). The pointing as Hiph. ( for ) in the signification obstupescite is the better attested. Job himself has only to think of this mystery, and he is perplexed, and his flesh lays hold on terror. The expression is like Job 18:20. The emotion is conceived of as a want arising from the subject of it, which that which produces it must as of necessity satisfy.
In the following strophe the representation of that which thus excites terror begins. The divine government does not harmonize with, but contradicts, the law maintained by the friends.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Reply of Job to Zophar. | B. C. 1520. |
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.
Job here recommends himself, both his case and his discourse, both what he suffered and what he said, to the compassionate consideration of his friends. 1. That which he entreats of them is very fair, that they would suffer him to speak (v. 3) and not break in upon him, as Zophar had done, in the midst of his discourse. Losers, of all men, may have leave to speak; and, if those that are accused and censured are not allowed to speak for themselves, they are wronged without remedy, and have no way to come at their right. He entreats that they would hear diligently his speech (v. 2) as those that were willing to understand him, and, if they were under a mistake, to have it rectified; and that they would mark him (v. 5), for we may as well not hear as not heed and observe what we hear. 2. That which he urges for this is very reasonable. (1.) They came to comfort him. “No,” says he, “let this be your consolations (v. 2); if you have no other comforts to administer to me, yet deny me not this; be so kind, so just, as to give me a patient hearing, and that shall pass for your consolations of me.” Nay, they could not know how to comfort him if they would not give him leave to open his case and tell his own story. Or, “It will be a consolation to yourselves, in reflection, to have dealt tenderly with your afflicted friend, and not harshly.” (2.) He would hear them speak when it came to their turn. “After I have spoken you may go on with what you have to say, and I will not hinder you, no, though you go on to mock me.” Those that engage in controversy must reckon upon having hard words given them, and resolve to bear reproach patiently; for, generally, those that mock will mock on, whatever is said to them. (3.) He hoped to convince them. “If you will but give me a fair hearing, mock on if you can, but I believe I shall say that which will change your note and make you pity me rather than mock me.” (4.) They were not his judges (v. 4): “Is my complaint to man? No, if it were I see it would be to little purpose to complain. But my complaint is to God, and to him do I appeal. Let him be Judge between you and me. Before him we stand upon even terms, and therefore I have the privilege of being heard as well as you. If my complaint were to men, my spirit would be troubled, for they would not regard me, nor rightly understand me; but my complaint is to God, who will suffer me to speak, though you will not.” It would be sad if God should deal as unkindly with us as our friends sometimes do. (5.) There was that in his case which was very surprising and astonishing, and therefore both needed and deserved their most serious consideration. It was not a common case, but a very extraordinary one. [1.] He himself was amazed at it, at the troubles God had laid upon him and the censures of his friends concerning him (v. 6): “When I remember that terrible day in which I was on a sudden stripped of all my comforts, that day in which I was stricken with sore boils,–when I remember all the hard speeches with which you have grieved me,–I confess I am afraid, and trembling takes hold of my flesh, especially when I compare this with the prosperous condition of many wicked people, and the applauses of their neighbours, with which they pass through the world.” Note, The providences of God, in the government of the world, are sometimes very astonishing even to wise and good men, and bring them to their wits’ end. [2.] He would have them wonder at it (v. 5): “Mark me, and be astonished. Instead of expounding my troubles, you should awfully adore the unsearchable mysteries of Providence in afflicting one thus of whom you know no evil; you should therefore lay your hand upon your mouth, silently wait the issue, and judge nothing before the time. God’s way is in the sea, and his path in the great waters. When we cannot account for what he does, in suffering the wicked to prosper and the godly to be afflicted, nor fathom the depth of those proceedings, it becomes us to sit down and admire them. Upright men shall be astonished at this, ch. xvii. 8. Be you so.”
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JOB – CHAPTER 21
JOB’S SECOND REBUTTAL TO ZOPHAR
Verses 1-34:
THAT THE WICKED PROSPER TILL DEATH REFUTES THE CONTENTION THAT JOB’S SUFFERING WAS FOR SECRET SIN
Verses 1-3 recount Job’s appeal to Zophar and his colleagues from afar to keep quiet until he had replied to Zophar’s accusations, then they could mock on, as they seemed to find consolation in their derision against him, and rejoice that he was in affliction, agony, and fear, Job 15:11; Job 16:2.
Verse 4 asks them if his complaint is against me. If so why should he be troubled in spirit? No, it was against God that he complained, that his sufferings which the Lord had permitted Satan to lay upon him, were taken by his false friends as evidence that the Lord might lift his suffering as a rebuttal against the assault of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. In the sufferings of Joseph, Job, and Paul may be seen the glory of God, overcoming the afflictions of the flesh, Gen 50:21; 2Co 12:6-11.
Verses 5, 6 call upon these accusers to mark him, observe Win and be astonished, laying their hand on their mouth, stopping their hasty, hot air judgments for a few moments of sober thought. Even when he reflected the ceaseless woes of the innocent, it often had caused him to tremble and fear in his flesh. He advised them too to consider that the innocent often suffered and the necessary inference was that they just might be wrong about him, Joh 9:2-3; John 11; John 4; Jas 4:12-16, see?
Verse 7 asks these accusers just why and how they might explain the fact that the wicked did go on living, even to old age, remaining mighty in power, even to death at an old age? See? They had asserted that the wicked were cut off early, in the midst of life, Job 7:12; Job 7:14; Job 12:6. See also Rom 2:4; 1Ti 1:16; Psa 73:18; Ec 8; 11-13; Luk 2:35; Pro 16:4; Rom 9:22; Psa 17:10; Psa 17:14; Jer 12:1; Hab 1:16.
Verses 8, 9 strengthen the argument that their offspring are established with them before their eyes. And their houses have peace and tranquility, with fear removed far from them. This contrasts with the claims of his feigned friends, Job 15:21-24; Job 20:26-28 and Job 5:23-24; Psa 73:19; Isa 57:19; Isa 57:21.
Verses 10, 11 describe prosperity of the wicked among their herds and their flocks. Their children have health and skip and dance about with joy and plenty. How does this “square” or harmonize with their “wise consultations?” Job would have them please explain, as he punctured their colorful balloons of feigned logic, 1Co 3:18-20. They were “wise in their own conceit,” Pro 3:7; Rom 11:25; Rom 12:16.
Verses 12, 13 add that they, though wicked, take up the timbrel and harp and rejoice or make merry at the sound of the organ or pipe, in symphony with musical instruments, Gen 4:21. They spend or live up their days in mirth and wealth until the moment that they go down to the grave, Isa 43:11; Hab 2:5. Job would have these self esteemed wise friends from afar to explain this, in their light of the premise of their arguments, if their premises had not been invalid or fallacious, Psa 73:4; Job 24:24.
Verses 14, 15 recounted that the youthful wealthy among the wicked even defy the living God, asking him to depart from them, to leave them alone, not disturb their conscience, for they had no desire for knowledge of his ways, Rom 2:14; Romans Verse15 explains their contempt in asking, “just what is the Almighty that we should serve him?” Job 34:9; Exo 5:2. They further defiantly challenged, “what profit should we have (what is in it for us), our covetous desires, if we should pray to him?” Job 35:3; Mal 3:14. If not by words, they -said it by their conduct, as set forth Mat 8:34; Jer 2:20; Pro 30:9; Exo 5:2; Psa 73:13. Pharaoh and the Gergeneses express this spirit.
Verse 16 declares that their good is not in their hand, though they enjoyed it. It was in the extended hand of mercy and compassion from the Lord that they lived; It was a mercy and compassion of which these three feigned friends seemed to be incapable, La 3:23; Mat 5:7; Act 17:28; Gal 6:1-2.
Verses 17 relates the platitudes of his friends of how oft or quickly the candle or lamp (of life), of the wicked is put out, and their destruction comes so oft. . .quickly upon them, because God sends sorrows upon the wicked because of His instant anger over their sins, Job 18:5; Job 6:12; Mat 25:8; Job 20:23; Job 20:29.
Verse 18 continues to review their claims that the wicked are always like dried stubble or chaff the the wind whiffs away, Job 13:25; Psa 1:4; Psa 35:5.
Verse 19 Indicates that equally questionable are Zophar’s adamant conclusions that if punishment is not sent hastily upon the Godless it surely will always be on his children, and the father and child will know why the suffering is sent, Job 18:19; Job 29:10; Hos 9:7.
Verse 20 relates Zophar’s contention that the eyes of all the wicked will see his own destruction, comprehend it, and he will drink of the cup of the wrath of Almighty God for his deeds in this life before he goes to the grave, Psa 75:8; Isa 51:17; Jer 25:15-16; Psa 11:6; La 4:21.
Verses 21, 22 first inquire just what pleasure the wicked would have in his house or household after his few months of remaining life were cut off, after he is dead, Ecc 3:22. Job then asks Zophar if anyone can give God knowledge, inform him what He should do about wrong in the life of the wicked, just how long He should let one live before He killed him? For he had shown that his own prosperity that he had lost did not prove that he was wicked; God gives prosperity and adversity as it pleases Him, not by irreversible laws of nature, Isa 40:13; Isa 45:9; Rom 11:34. He judges the exalted, whether angels or men, as it pleases Him, Isa 2:12-17; 1Co 2:16.
Verses 23, 24 begin a contrast of the manpower or state in which men die. One may die in full strength of years in prosperity, wholly at ease, quite suddenly, without pain. Another dies with his breasts full of milk and his bones full of live marrow, well fed, with no hunger, physically satisfied.
Verses 25, 26 add that yet another, neither more wicked or righteous than those who died at ease and well fed, dies with bitterness of soul, neither eating with pleasure nor breathing without pain. Each lies down in death alike, to be eaten of worms, as it is appointed, Job 3:18-19; Ecc 9:2; Ecc 9:5.
Verses 27, 28 declare that Job knew the thoughts and veiled insinuations of wickedness that Zophar and his colleague accusers from afar had imagined and thrust against him. For they had sarcastically asked where the house of the eldest son of Job could now be found, and the offspring of the prince or emir (Arab ruler) who might succeed him, Job 1:19; Job 20:7. They had further rhetorically added, just where are the many residences, pavilions, or dwelling places befitting the prosperous ruler and his household? Had not all that Job once possessed been suddenly swept away, by reason of hypocritical sin in his own life? they argued. He understood.
Verse 29 challenges, them, since they will not accept anything he says about his innocence, to inquire of the opinions of the travelers who passed by who were in no way related to him, La 1:12. He posed this to both Bildad, Job 8:8, and Zophar, Job 20:4. He inquired if they were aware of the opinions, testimony, and intimations of travelers from afar about this matter, as he was, except these opinions of their own party, Isa 7:11.
Verse 30 declares that the judgment of knowledgeable men, travelers from afar verified or validated his contention that the judgment of the wicked was reserved to or toward a future day of judgment of wrath and destruction, as set forth Pro 16:4; Heb 9:27; 2Pe 2:9. Hereafter the lot of the righteous and the wicked shall be reversed, Luk 16:25.
Verse 31 asks just who dares to charge the prosperous wicked with his bad ways in this present life? He is so powerful now that men dare not, but Job grants that he shall be repaid, v. 20, Heb 9:27; Joh 5:28-29.
Verses 32, 33 then declare that the prosperous wicked shall surely be brought to the grave with solemn pomp and remain in the tomb, Psa 45:15. In the tomb monument he is memorialized. He is remembered, in conflict with Bildad’s opposition, Job 18; Job 17. There the wicked wealthy find sweet rest, are not disturbed, till the hour of judgment, Jdg 4:6; Job 3:17-18; Joh 5:28-29.
Verse 34 concludes that the false consolations, really irritations, that these feigned friends had boastfully brought Job were vain, empty, meaningless, contradictory to truth, facts, and experiences of life, Job 15:11. Their platitudes and proverbs only betrayed their evil or wicked intent against him; They were indeed “forgers of lies” and “physicians of no value,” fakes, counterfeits, and, fraudulent prophets, Job 13:4.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
JOBS ADEQUATE ANSWER
Job 21:1-34.
JOB is not yet silenced, nor will it ever be so. These men opened the debate, but Job will close it. There are men who start things they cannot finish, and undertake tasks for which they find themselves insufficient.
In this twenty-first chapter Job deals first with the false arguments; second, with the facts of history, and third, with the final judgment.
THE FALSE ARGUMENTS
These justified and demanded Jobs reply.
But Job answered and said,
Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations (Job 21:1-2).
He makes it even though mockery may follow.
Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on (Job 21:3).
He reminds them that facts of history are after all more eloquent than speech.
As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?
Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth (Job 21:4-5).
THE FACTS OF HISTORY
The first fact is that the wicked often prosper above the righteous.
Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.
Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.
Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.
They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.
They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave (Job 21:6-13).
The second fact is that in their prosperity they often despise God.
Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.
What is the Almighty that we should serve Him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto Him? (Job 21:14-15).
The third fact is that judgment sometimes seems to be reversed.
Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in His anger.
They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
God lay eth up His iniquity for His children: He rewardeth him, and he shall know it.
His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?
Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing He judgeth those that are high.
One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow.
And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure.
They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.
Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.
For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? And where are the dwelling places of the wicked? (Job 21:16-28).
THE FINAL JUDGMENT
However, the great day of judgment will yet come.
Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens.
That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath (Job 21:29-30).
The wicked may not sense death as an evil sentence.
Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?
Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.
The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him (Job 21:31-33).
False philosophies settle no fates.
How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood? (Job 21:34).
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
JOBS REPLY TO ZOPHARS SECOND SPEECH
The ungodly, instead of experiencing the miseries indicated by Zophar, often, perhaps generally, enjoy continued ease and prosperity in this life.
I. Introduction (Job. 21:2-6).
1. Bespeaks earnest attention (Job. 21:2). Hear diligently my speech. Men of wisdom and experience, especially pious sufferers, worthy to be seriously listened to. Solemn and weighty truths to be heard with corresponding attention. Heb., Hear, hear. Serious matters call for double or diligent hearing. Deep attention to be given to truths concerning Gods mysterious providence, still more to those regarding a provided Saviour and the great salvation (Heb. 2:1). An aggravated sin when God stretches out His hand and no man regards it (Pro. 1:24).
A reason given for such attention: And let this be (or, and this shall be) your consolations. Allusion to Zophars boasted consolations (ch. Job. 15:11). Sometimes mourners more relieved by our listening to their sentiments than by uttering our own. Better to be silent in the presence of the afflicted than to dispute or censure. Consolation due to sufferers from their friends. A brother born for adversity. Professed comforters may become real tormentors.
2. Solicits patience (Job. 21:3). Suffer me that I may speak. Patience especially due to sufferers. Persons who speak much themselves generally most impatient of others. The Scripture ruleSwift to hear, slow to speak.And after that I have spoken, mock on. A troubled spirit often cased by utterance. Sad when those who ought to be comforters in our affliction become mockers (ch. Job. 17:2). One of Jobs greatest trials to be mocked by his friends (ch. Job. 12:4). As much patience required to endure mockings as scourgings (Heb. 11:36).
3. Justifies his displeasure (Job. 21:4). As for me, is my complaint to man? And if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled? (margin, shortened; same word rendered discouraged, Num. 21:5; grieved, Jdg. 10:16; vexed, Jdg. 16:16; straitened, Mic. 2:7; hasty, Pro. 14:29; anguish, Exo. 6:9). Sorrow contracts the heart as joy enlarges it (Psa. 119:32). The flesh is soon angry, while grace is long suffering. Job complains not to man, but to God, as the author of his troubles. His complaint both of God and to God; the former the complaint of the flesh, the latter that of the spirit. Grace teaches to look away from instruments and second causes to God Himself. So David (2Sa. 16:10).
Job justifies his displeasure on the ground that God dealt so hardly with him. His language too much that of the prophet at Nineveh and Elijah under the juniper-tree. The flesh always and in all alike. Thinks that under severe trouble we do well to be angry. Grace enables us to kiss the rod that smites us, and to say, Abba, Father; not my will, but Thine be done. Jesus rather than Job our pattern in affliction. Our privilege in Christ to be strengthened with all might, according to Gods glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness (Col. 1:11).
4. Invites solemn attention to the astounding fact of suffering saints and prosperous sinners (Job. 21:5). Mark me and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth [in silent awe and wonder]. Gods dealings in Providence to be regarded with reverence and awe. Habakkuks experience (Hab. 3:16); Davids (Psa. 119:120). The sufferings of saints and prosperity of sinners a subject mysterious and inscrutable till read in the light of inspired Scripture (Psa. 13:3). Anomalies in Gods government awaiting the explanations of eternity.
Expresses his own feelings in reference to this mysterious fact and its influence upon himself (Job. 21:6). Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh. Our own experience, as well as that of others, often to be remembered with trembling (Lam. 3:19-20). The part of grace not only to tremble at Gods word, but Gods works (Isa. 66:2). The speaker to be duly affected himself by the truths he addresses to others. Must weep himself if be would have his hearers weep.
II. Problem proposed. Commences with a question implying an undoubted fact (Job. 21:7).
Wherefore do the wicked live (or, enjoy life), become old, yea mighty in power (or wealth). Three facts implied regarding the ungodly in this life:
1. They live; are permitted to continue in life and to enjoy it.
2. In many instances become old; ordinarily viewed as an element of prosperity and a mark of Divine favour. The hoary head not always found in the way of righteousness.
3. Become mighty in power and substance; enjoy great worldly prosperity (Psa. 78:12). Such facts hardly to be expected under the government of a righteous God. The perplexity and almost despair of Asaph (Psa. 73:2-13). The 73rd Psalm a commentary on this chapter of Job. Such facts suggest inquiry as to the cause. Scripture furnishes the reply. (See Rom. 2:4; 1Ti. 1:16; Psa. 73:18; Ecc. 8:11-13; Luk. 2:35, &c.; Psa. 16:4; Rom. 9:22). The present not the only state of mans existence. This life a state of probation and discipline, not of retribution. The present a time of forbearance and mercy; God waiting for the sinners repentance in order to be gracious to him. Gods goodness intended to lead to repentance. The ungodly spared in order to have time for repentance; the long-suffering of God is salvation; not willing that any should perish (2Pe. 3:9-15). Their prosperity an exercise for the faith of the godly. A standing evidence of a time of future retribution. A monument to the glory of the Divine patience and long suffering. Renders the impenitence of men inexcusable and justifies all their future punishment. Demonstrates the inferiority of earthly to heavenly blessings.
III. Description of the prosperity of the ungodly (Job. 21:8-13).
1. In relation to their children (Job. 21:8). Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Their children obtain a firm and prosperous position in the world, and that while they themselves still live to see and enjoy it. Important elements in a mans earthly felicity:
(1) To have a numerous offspring;
(2) To see his children prosperous and established in the world;
(3) To have them continuing to live with or near him;
(4) To live to see and rejoice in their earthly prosperity and happiness. Some of these elements formerly enjoyed by Job, though no longer so. The happiness of the ungodly, in relation to their children, again touched upon under another aspect in Job. 21:11. They send forth their little ones (out of doors, under a guardian or guide), and their children dance (frisk sportively as lambs in the pasture). Pleasing picture of domestic happiness and prosperity. The children viewed as still young and under their parents guardianship. Healthy, happy, frolicking children a pleasant spectacle, especially to parents eyes. A large ingredient in the cup of earthly bliss. Homes lighted up with childrens innocent hilarities the gift of a gracious God.
2. Domestic security and freedom from affliction and trouble (Job. 21:9). Their houses are safe from fear (of any hostile attack or elemental violence), neither is the rod of God upon them. The contrast to the case of Job and his children. Sons experience chastisement from which slaves are exempt. Freedom from afflictions and trials no mark of a child of God. The ungodly have no changes, therefore they fear not God (Psa. 55:19). Ill sign for a man when God will not spend a rod upon him [Brookes].
3. Success in business and freedom from worldly losses (Job. 21:10). Their bull gen-dereth and faileth not; their cow calveth and casteth not her calf (by an untimely birth). Matters in which human skill and industry seem to have but little to do. As if a blessing rested on all the work of their hands, and on all their belongings. Their very cattle prosperous and fruitful. People in everything fortunate, and, as the world say, lucky.
4. Enjoyment of music and festivity (Job. 21:12). They take (or lift up [their voice] to) the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at (or, trip merrily to) the sound of the organ (or pipemusical instruments of greatest antiquity [Gen. 4:21; Gen. 31:27]; the organ with us a comparatively modern invention). The life of the persons in question one, to a large extent, of festivity and enjoyment. Their dwellings abundantly enlivened with the sound of music, vocal and instrumental. The ungodly no strangers to the hilarity of music and dancing. The harp and viol, the tabret and pipe, are in their feasts, while they regard not the work of the Lord (Isa. 5:12). They chant to the sound of the viol and invent to themselves instruments of music like David, but are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph (Amo. 6:5-6). Musical instruments an invention of the descendants of Cain (Gen. 4:21). Yet
Music
one of Gods choicest earthly blessings. Its influence beneficial on the individual and the household. Its effects on mans nature manifold and important. Rests fatigue. Relieves pain. Subdues passion. Soothes suffering. Mitigates sorrow. Allays nervous irritation. Resists melancholy. Sauls evil spirit yielded to the sweet sounds of Davids harp (1Sa. 16:23). Inspires courage and inspirits the brave. The rousing strains of Highland bagpipes helped to win the day at Waterloo. Music powerful in the conflict of life. A means of moral culture. Assists devotion. Calms and elevates the mind for the communication and reception of Divine truth. The prophet calls first for the aid of a minstrel (2Ki. 3:15). Music a Divine art and heavenly employment. Heaven filled with music. Something of divinity in music more than the ear discovers [Sir T. Browne]. The beneficial effect of soft and sweet sounds, especially of sacred music, upon the sick, an acknowledged fact. Music whispered to the weary spirit sometimes the only sound to be endured by the sick and sorrowful. Music to be consecrated to the glory of its Divine Author. A table without music little better than a manger [Epictetus]. Especially true of the song of praise and thanksgiving. Music, like other Divine gifts, often desecrated to the service of the god of this world. The Enemys object to make a sinful and worldly life as agreeable as possible. Helps men to forget death and a judgment to come in the sweet sounds of earthly music. Nero played on his harp while gazing on Rome in flames, the probable effect of his own wickedness.
5. A joyous life and an easy and painless death. Job. 21:13.They spend their days in wealth (prosperity or pleasure), and in a moment go down to the grave (without any painful, lingering disease, or without inward terrors of conscience). A case probably at least as frequent as that described in such tragic terms by Zophar (chap. Job. 20:16-28). Exemplified in the rich fool (Luk. 12:16-20), and in Dives (Luk. 16:19-22). Observe
(1). The main concern of a godless man is about his wealth or worldly happiness. In regard to wealth, his care is
(1) To get it;
(2) To keep it;
(3) To enjoy it.
(2). An easy death after a prosperous life one of the desires of the ungodly, and frequently experienced by them. Such a death a blessing to the godly; to the ungodly a curse. An uneasy death-bed a thousand times better than an undone eternity.
(3). A godless life often finished with a sudden and unprepared for death. The sinners greatest misery only to discover his misery when too late to escape it. To a believer sudden death is sudden glory.
IV. The hardening effect of this prosperity on the wicked themselves
Job. 21:14.Therefore they say (in works if not. in words): Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve Him? And what profit should we have if we pray to Him? (Heb.: If we meet Him?i.e., in a way of prayer). Gods goodness often perverted by the ungodly to an end the opposite of that intended. That goodness improved leads men to repentance; abused, drives them farther from it. Un-sanctified wealth a blessing perverted into a curse. Riches, with the heart in them, separate men still farther from God. One effect of Divine grace is that men fear the Lord and His goodness. The tendency of fallen human nature is to grow proud and independent of God in prosperity. Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked (Deu. 32:15). The terrible enmity of the carnal mind against God perhaps most conspicuous in prosperity. Ordinarily, gifts and kindness attract and attach to the giver.The text an awful exhibition of mans
Natural Depravity
That depravity displayed
1. In ingratitude and enmity towards God. Depart from us.
2. In dislike to Gods ways. We desire not, &c.
3. In pride and independence in regard to God. What is the Almighty? &c.
4. In infidelity and unbelief. What profit should we have? &c.
These verses a comment on Davids testimony concerning the ungodly in every age The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God (Psa. 14:1). An illustration of the Apostles language in reference to the unrenewed: Alienated from the life of God; Without God in the world (Eph. 2:12; Eph. 4:18). The history of mankind, the literature of every land, and the observation of every day, a humbling confirmation of the patriarchs description of
An impious world,
Who deem religion frenzy, and the God
Who made them an intruder on their joys.
From the whole passage observe
1. The misery of the ungodly that they are far from God, and desire to be still farther. They say unto God: Depart from us. To be weary and impatient of Gods presence the strongest evidence of a wicked heart. What constitutes the joy and desire of a saint is the torment and aversion of an impenitent sinner. Awful result to the ungodly man when God grants him the wish of his unrenewed heart.
2. Impenitent men do not desire to know Gods wags, much less to walk in them. We desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. Gods ways are
(1) His own doings and procedure;
(2) The conduct He prescribes to His intelligent creatures. The mark of a gracious heart to desire to know Gods ways; still more to walk in them. Mens sin and misery not to know Gods ways; still more not to have the desire to know them.
3. Gods service founded on a just consideration of the Almighty. What is the Almighty that we should serve Him? Ir-religion the result of spiritual blindness and ignorance of God. The Almighty infinitely worthy to be served
(1) For what He is in Himselfgood, holy, just, wise, faithful, and powerful;
(2) For what He is to usour Creator, Preserver, Benefactor, and in Christ our Redeemer.
4. The part of infidelity and ungodliness to question the utility of prayer. What profit should we have if we pray to Him? Gods purpose and plan to give to the humble and believing asker (Eze. 36:37; Mat. 7:7; Php. 4:6-7; Jas. 1:5-6; Jas. 4:2-3). For answer to the question: What profit should we have? &c, ask
(1) Those who live a life of prayer;
(2) A dying bed;
(3) The day of judgment. If religion costs something, the want of it one day found to cost much more. The mark of a depraved nature to ask, not What is right? but What profit should we have? The profitable only found in the right. Duty first; utility next.
5. The whole Bible and the history of the Church of God on earth an answer to the question of infidelity in the text.
Abrahams servant prayed to God, and God directed him to the person who should be a wife to his masters son and heir (Gen. 24:10-20).
Jacob prayed to God, and God inclined the heart of his irritated brother, so that they met in friendship and peace (Gen. 32:24-30; Gen. 33:1-4).
Samson prayed to God, and God showed him a well of water, where he quenched his burning thirst, and so lived to judge Israel (Jdg. 15:18-20).
David prayed, and God defeated the counsel of Ahithophel (2Sa. 15:31; 2Sa. 16:20-23; 2Sa. 17:14-23).
Daniel prayed, and God enabled him both to tell Nebuchadnezzar his dream and the interpretation of it (Dan. 2:16-23).
Nehemiah prayed, and God inclined the heart of the King of Persia to grant him leave of absence to visit and rebuild Jerusalem (Neh. 1:11; Neh. 2:1-6).
Esther and Mordecai prayed, and God defeated the purpose of Haman, and saved the Jews from destruction (Est. 4:15-17; Est. 6:7-8).
The believers in Jerusalem prayed, and God opened the prison-doors and set Peter at liberty, when Herod had resolved upon his death (Act. 12:1-12).
The profit from prayer, however, not confined to direct answers.
Paul prayed that the thorn in the flesh might be removed, and his prayer brought a large increase of spiritual strength, while the thorn, perhaps, remained (2Co. 12:7-10). Prayer like the dove that Noah sent forth, and which blessed him not only when it returned with an olive leaf in its mouth, but when it never returned at all.
The question which the Patriarch puts into the mouth of the ungodly and infidel in his day boldly repeated in our own; as indicated in the famous prayer-test lately proposed by a Professor in one of the Scotch Universities, and a leading member of the British Association for the Promotion of Scientific Knowledge.
Observe in regard to
Prayer
(1.) The profit from prayer taught by the natural instinct of the human race. Natural to men, even the most ungodly and unenlightened, to think of calling upon some superior Being in the time of danger or of trouble. The erection of the altar to the unknown God at Athens due to this feeling on the part of the Athenians. The conduct of the heathen sailors in the ship which was to convey Jonah to Tarshish, an indication of the feelings and views of humanity (Jon. 1:5).
(2.) Profit from prayer a natural and necessary conclusion from the acknowledged fatherhood of God. An instinct of nature for a child to apply to a father in difficulty or distress.
(3.) Answers to prayer only desirable when our prayers are according to the will of God. If otherwise, answers to prayer rather a bane than a blessing. He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls (Psa. 106:15).
(4.) One part of the Holy Spirits office to leach those who are under His guidance what to ask for (Rom. 8:26-27).
(5.) Profit from prayer on the part of those who are living in rebellion against God, a matter of the merest mercy. The practice of sin a sufficient reason why prayer may not be answered. Righteous with God to say as He did to the Jews: Yea, when ye make many prayers I will not hear; your hands are full of blood (Isa. 1:15). Iniquity only regarded in the heart sufficient to hinder answers to prayer (Psa. 66:18).
(6.) Access to God and assurance of answers to prayer the precious fruit of the incarnation, death, and intercession of the Son of God (Heb. 4:16). Christ, or the Son of God in our nature, the only and divinely-constituted medium of communication between fallen men and a righteous and holy God. The ladder which Jacob saw in his dream at Bethel, with the angels of God ascending and descending upon it (Gen. 28:12; Joh. 1:51).
(7.) True prayer a meeting with God. (Heb.) What profit if we meet with Him? Prayer vain if not a meeting with God. Christ the meeting-place between a Holy God and sinful man (Heb. 4:14-16.) Figured by the mercy-seat (Eze. 22:26). Christ the only way to the Father, and only Mediator between God and men (Joh. 14:6; 1Ti. 2:5). Gods love to man manifested in His providing Christ as a meeting-place between Himself and sinners. In and through Christ, men able now to meet with God on a throne of grace; apart from Christ, God only to be met with on a throne of judgment. Men must either meet with God in prayer now, or meet with Him in judgment hereafter. A meeting with God on the part of men certain and inevitable, sooner or later. The question is, of what nature shall the meeting be? May be one to our unspeakable joy, or to our everlasting sorrow. To meet with God in prayer through Christ now, is life; to meet with Him in judgment without Christ hereafter, is death. Madness to put away a meeting with God till we can only meet with Him as an angry Judge. God, in Christ, a Father waiting with open arms to receive His penitent and praying children; God, apart from Christ, a consuming fire to devour His impenitent and prayerless adversaries. A sinners blessedness to meet with God as, in Christ, reconciled and reconciling the World to Himself.
V. Jobs protest against a life of prosperous ungodliness (Job. 21:16). Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked, is far from me. Observe
1. Worldly prosperity and earthly blessings not less a good because abuseda good, though not the chief good. The part of sin
(1) to pervert what is good in itself into an evil;
(2) To make a temporal good the chief good instead of an eternal one.
2. The good enjoyed by the ungodly neither a satisfying nor a lasting one; their good is not in their hand,a thing neither to be grasped nor retained. Mighty difference between the good of the believer and the worldling. The one substance, the other shadow; the one lasting and eternal, the other momentary and perishing. The ungodly unable to retain their prosperity and happiness a moment beyond Gods pleasure. A thousand accidents able to rob them of it at any moment. No real good in their hand, and still less in their hope.
3. Care to be taken not to be influenced by the prosperity of the godless and worldly.
(1) By consideration of the truth and reality of their case; their prosperity only temporary, and their happiness unreal; their good not in their hand;
(2) By steadfast repudiation of their principles and life. The counsel of the wicked is far from me. Consider, in regard to
The counsel of the wicked
First: what it is. The principles upon which they act and by which their life is governed. These are
(1) To make the enjoyment of the present life their chief good,their first if not their only aimtake care for this life, and let the next take care of itself.
(2) To gain that enjoyment in any way they can with safety:if honestly, well; if not, in any way you can.
(3) To depend on their own endeavours for what they desire, instead of God:Mine own hand hath gotten me this wealth.
(4) To ignore God and eternity, heaven and hell, either as having no existence or no relation to themselves. The worldlings creedno reality but what is visible or cognizable by themselves. The seen and sensible only substance, all else shadow and moonshine.
(5) To despise the provision of a Saviour. Not this man, but Barabbas;
(6) To care for ones self and immediate connections, and leave others to do the same. Attend to number one.
Second: Jobs conduct in regard to this counsel. The counsel of the wicked is far from me. The principles and practice of the ungodly, not only to be put away, but far away from us. Safest to stand at the greatest distance from sin. Joseph kept far from it, and had Gods blessing in the dungeon. David went near it and got broken bones. Sin an infectious plague; therefore not to be approached. The surest way not to walk in the counsel of the wicked is to keep far from it. Enter not into the path of the wicked; avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away. Occasions of sin to be avoided as well as sin itself. The harlots door to be avoided. He who carries gunpowder must keep far away from sparks. God only keeps from acts of sin those who keep from occasions of it. Look not intently on what you may not love entirely. (Brookes.) The counsel of the wicked to be put far from us
(1) In out judgment. To be viewed in its real character. Condemned and repudiated as what it really iswicked, abominable, destructive.
(2) In our will and purpose. Our language to be, what have I to do with idols? (Hos. 14:8). To choose with Mary the good part. To say with David: Depart from me, ye evil-doers; for I will keep the commandments of my God. I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments (Psa. 119:106; Psa. 119:115). So Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the kings meat (Dan. 1:8).
(3) In our practice. Purpose to become practice. The man only blessed who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly (Psa. 1:1). Our life to be governed by opposite principles.
Third: why is the counsel of the ungodly to be put far from us? From its character and issues. The principles of the ungodly and worldly are
(1) Foolish and unreasonable. Only the fool says in his heart, no God. Absurd only to believe what we see. Madness to prefer the enjoyment, of a day to that of a life-time; the enjoyment of a short life-time to that of an endless eternity. The part of a fool to make careful provision for the body and neglect the soul which shall eternally survive it.
(2) Wicked. Intensely wicked to ignore and repudiate the God that made, preserves, and every moment sustains us; a God possessed of every excellencethe Author of our Being and our Well-being.
(3) Destructive. Certain and endless ruin the result of a sinful and worldly life,of despising God and rejecting His Son, Jesus Christ, All they that hate me love death. What is sown here is reaped hereafter (Gal. 6:7-8; Psa. 16:4; Is Job. 1:11; Rom. 3:16; Rom. 6:21; Rom. 6:23; Joh. 8:21; Joh. 8:24).
Fourth: How is the counsel of the wicked to be put far away from us? Not easily. The counsel of the wicked is
(1) Natural to a depraved heart. The carnal mind enmity against God. To follow the counsel of the wicked is to swim with the stream.
(2) Popular. The way of the multitude. To put it far away is to be singular. Not always easy to come out and be separate.
(3) Pleasing to the flesh. Sin wears a serpents skin. The forbidden fruit pleasing to the eye, and sweet to the taste. The principles and practice of the wicked and worldly only to be put far away from us
(1) By a change of heart. A corrupt tree only brings forth evil fruit. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, &c. Ye must be born again. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
(2) By acceptance of the offered Saviour and reliance on His grace. In looking to Him who died for our sin we are delivered from its power, and receive strength to overcome it. The cross of Christ our only deliverance from the counsel of the ungodly (Gal. 6:14).
(3) By the due use of means. (i.) Prayer. Spiritual strength given to waiting upon God and in answer to prayer (Isa. 40:22-31; Eze. 36:25-27; Eze. 36:37). (ii.) Reading and meditation in the Scriptures (Psa. 17:4; Psa. 119:11; Joh. 15:3; Joh. 18:17). (iii.) Contemplation of the Saviours character and cross (2Co. 3:18; Gal. 6:14). (iv.) Consideration of the character and consequences of sin.
Jobs practical renunciation of the counsel of the ungodly already a fact. Resolution is to become reality. The future to be translated into the present,Let it be to become it is.
VI. The final misery of the ungodly, notwithstanding present prosperity (Job. 21:17). How oft is the candle of the wicked put out. May be read either as a question implying the rarity of the case, or as an exclamation implying its frequency. The candle, or prosperity, of the wicked, extinguished by death, though frequently before it. Jobs main assertion, that the wicked often live, become old, and die in prosperity and ease. Yet their end destruction not the less. Asaph stumbled at the prosperity of the wicked till he went into the sanctuary and understood their end (Psa. 73:17).How oft cometh their destruction upon them. Not always, nor even usually, visited with signal judgment and a miscrable death. Occasional cases as warnings, and as indications of a future judgment. Examples: the Deluge; destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha; Haman; Saul, Herod.God distributeth sorrows in His anger. Observe
1. Continuance of outward prosperity consistent with secret wrath. The abuse of Divine gifts the greatest provocation of Divine anger. Gods wrath certain against ungodliness, however long its manifestation may be withheld. God angry with the wicked every day. Wrath treasured up against the day of wrath.
(2) The sorrows of the ungodly often sent in anger; those of the godly always in love. Those the most terrible sorrows that are distributed in Gods anger.
(3) Sorrows distributed by God as well as mercies. All sorrows distributed by a Divine hand; only, some distributed in anger, others in love. Trouble not from the dust. Wisely meted out, whether in mercy or in judgment. The cup mingled and measured, and sooner or later put into the hand of each. The cup of sorrow held out to a believer by a Fathers hand, to be exchanged ere long for the cup of joy. To he put at last into the hand of the ungodly (Isa. 51:22-23; Luk. 16:25).
(4) Terrible end of the wicked after a life of prosperity and pleasure (Job. 21:18). They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away, (margin, stealeth away, rapidly and unexpectedly as a thief in the night, Mat. 24:43; 1Th. 5:2; 2Pe. 3:10; Rev. 16:15). Frequent comparison of the ungodly to the fragments of straw and the chaff separated from the wheat on the open threshing-floor, exposed to the wind on a lofty situation, and thus carried violently, suddenly, and rapidly away by it, while the wheat is left for the garner (Psa. 1:4; Isa. 29:5; Hos. 13:3). Indicates
(1) Gods long-continued but exhausted patience;
(2) The worthlessness of the ungodly;
(3) Their final separation from the godly;
(4) Their utter and irremediable destruction.
VII. A sinful life often punished in its consequences on the sinners children (Job. 21:19). God layeth up his iniquity (or the punishment of it) for his children; he rewardeth him and he shall know (or feel) it. His eyes shall see his destruction (implying more than mere destruction itself; he shall have full and bitter experience of it; or shall see it approaching and yet be unable to escape from it), and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty [as before he drank iniquity, which is the cause of it]. For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst? Perhaps an objection to his statement here anticipated and answered. If God does not punish the ungodly man in this life, yet, say the three friends, He punishes him in his children after him. But, replies Job, the punishment ought to be inflicted on himself; and he, not his children, ought, according to your principles, to feel it. His eyes ought to see his own destruction. For what has he to do with his family after him when he his dead? Observe
(1) An undeniable truth that a mans sins often entail their consequences on his children. Embodied in the second commandment (Exo. 20:5). Temporal consequences often entailed apart from sins in the children. The parents sins frequently inherited by the children, and their consequences along with them. A man in some degree punished in the person of his children. His children closely bound up with him as part of himself. A natural desire that it should be well with them after his death. His childrens suffering after his death an aggravation of his own.
(2) Sin, however, mainly punished in the person himself who commits it. Hence, that punishment not always inflicted in this life, as Zophar and his friends maintained. No less certainly however in the next, as maintained by Job.
VIII. Assertion of Gods infinite wisdom and knowledge (Job. 21:22). Shall any teach God knowledge? Seeing he judgeth those that are high. God, unable to receive any accession to His wisdom or knowledge from the most intelligent of His creatures. The highest intelligences under His government and control. God universally acknowledged as the Judge and Ruler of heaven and earth (Gen. 18:25). Angels, devils, and men of every rank, under His sway and jurisdiction. Hell and destruction naked and open before Him. The hearts and counsels of men and angels exposed to His view. The expulsion of fallen angels an example of His judging those that are high. The judge of angels not to be directed by puny men (Rom. 11:34; 1Co. 2:16). He who judges angels needs no instruction how to deal with men. Hence
(1) The case of each safe in his hands;
(2) No room for questioning or cavilling on the part of any of His creatures in reference to His providential dealings with them.
IX. Sovereignty and inscrutableness of Divine Providence. Men variously dealt with both in life and death without apparent reference to character and desert (Job. 21:23). One dieth in his full strength [with unimpaired health and vigour], being wholly at ease and quiet [in the hey-day of prosperity]. His breasts (margin, milk pails) are full of milk (or, his vessels, intestines, or sides are full of fat), and his bones are moistened with marrow. And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul (with an experience the opposite of the former, grief and pain pursuing him to the end), and never eateth with pleasure (or, never enjoys pleasure,a sufferer during his whole life) Varieties everywhere in mens experience, both in life and in death. These varieties often and generally due rather to the sovereignty of the Divine Disposer than to the character and merits of individuals. Love and hatred not to be discovered by the external events in our lot. One event to all (Ecc. 9:2).Death equally the end of all (Job. 21:25). They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them, Lessons from this unversality of death:
(1) Contentment with ones lot. External differences only for a short period of this present life. These assigned now in infinite wisdom, and all forgotten in the grave.
(2) Humility. The dust our final resting-place. Worms by-and-by our principal covering;
(3) Necessity of immediate preparation and constant readiness for death. Nothing more certain than death, and more uncertain than the time and circumstances. The grave a resting-place for the body; the soul, immortal and immaterial, has its dwelling elsewhere. Its place in the spirit-world according to its character and deeds in this. After death the judgment (Mat. 25:31-46; Rom. 2:6-10). In the eternal world the rich and poor often change places. Lazarus comforted, Dives tormented (Luk. 16:25).
X. Jobs remonstrance with his friends on their erroneous and uncharitable views (Job. 21:27-30).
1. Exposes their secret cogitations regarding him (Job. 21:27). Behold I know your thoughts, and the devises which ye wrongfully imagine against me. For ye say [within yourselves], where is the house of the prince (the rich or munificent chiefalluding to Job himself, whose house was now desolate, and that of his eldest son in ruins)? and where are the dwelling-places of the wicked? [margin, the tent of the tabernacles; Heb., the tent of the dwelling-places; either that of the rich chief in the midst of those of his household and clan, [chap. Job. 38:19] or his house as divided into various apartments). The secret surmise of Jobs friends that the desolation of his own house, and that of his son, was a Divine retribution. From this desolation they injuriously conclude they had been wicked men. The errors of the Jews in Christs day, in reference to the slaughtered Galilans and the disaster in Siloam (Luk. 13:1-5.) That of the Miletians, in regard to Paul and the viper which fastened on his hand (Act. 28:4).
2. Refers them to the testimony of men of travel and observation (Job. 21:29). Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens? (or, acknowledge their testimonies,the examples met with in their travels, and related by them to others, or their written communications, which are proofs of what I now advance). In the early ages of the world, and still to a great extent in the East, most of the information as to events in other lands obtained by travellers. That information, however, probably to some extent committed early to letters, here called tokens,signs or marks (Gen. 4:15). Moses directed by God to write the song he delivered before his death, as well as the law of commandments (Deu. 31:19-24). Letters among the earliest inventions. Probably at first hieroglyphics, or figures of animate or inanimate objects. (See ch. Job. 19:23-24).
3. Testimony of travellers in relation to the wicked (Job. 21:30). That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction (spared often and long in this world, even in the midst of calamities that overtake others, though sure to be punished in the next, if not ultimately in this, as in the case of Pharaoh)? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath (or, they are led [as in a pompous procession] to the day of wrath, which sooner or later overtakes them; or, they are led [in safety] in the day of wrath which comes upon the community; margin, the day of wrathsgreat or accumulated wrath, as Rev. 6:17). Jobs first positionGod destroys, by external calamities, the righteous and the wicked indiscriminately (ch. Job. 9:22-23). His secondThe wicked are often spared in the midst of such calamities,spared in ease and prosperity,and spared long. Rests his assertions on facts. These facts not invalidated by occasional examples of the contrary. These in perfect harmony with, and even when rightly viewed, a confirmation of, a future retribution. Every day of wrath in this world points its finger to a still greater one in the next.
XI. Returns to the prosperity and power of the wicked as following them even to the grave
The ungodly often so powerful as to escape all reproof and punishment for their crimes in this world (Job. 21:31). Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done? None bold enough for the one, or powerful enough for the other. The case of John the Baptist in relation to Herod the Tetrarch, a rare one, especially in those early times. Job. 21:32.Yet shall he (or even this man) be brought (conveyed in pomp and honour) to the grave. (Margin, graves, the place of graves; or the sepulchral grot, with its various apartnents and numerous niches for the dead; or an eminent and magnificent gravea large and splendid mausoleum, perhaps a pyramid); and shall remain in the tomb, (Margin, shall watch in the heap; shall appear still to live at his tomb, as embalmed and preserved from corruption, or as represented by his statue or other memorial; or watch shall be kept [by others] at his tomb, to preserve it and do him honour). Honour not only attends him in life, but follows him to the tomb both in and after his death. So the rich man died and was buried, i.e. had a large and splendid funeral; nothing said of the burial of Lazarus (Luk. 16:22). The pompous funeral of the wicked also a noticeable object in the days of the royal preacher (Ecc. 8:10). Job. 21:33.The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him. Buried, like great men, at the foot of a mountain where the winter stream keeps moist the sods that cover him. He has a pleasant restingplace for his remains, and the sod lies softly upon him. Apparently as enviable in his death as he had been in his life. Himself still supposed to enjoy in the spirit-world the honour done to his earthly remains, and the agreeable circumstances which attend them. Pleasing delusion of the imagination! The experience of the rich man in hell (Hades or the spirit-world) the opposite of that suggested by his costly funeral and beautifully adorned grave.And every man shall draw after him as there are innumerable before him. His death no solitary case. Death the common lot of fallen humanity, without respect to character or conduct. The wicked abundantly accompanied in the spirit-world. Company however no alleviation. The second desire of the rich man in Hades, that his five brethren might not come also to that place of torment (Luk. 16:28). The presence of others rather an aggravation than a relief.
XII. Conclusion (Job. 21:34). The friends consolation vain because grounded on false principles. How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing that in your answers there remaineth falsehood (Margin, transgressions, opposition to the truth, or, malice and evil intent). Consolation, to be of any value, to be grounded on right principles. Must be
(1) True, in the matter; according to the Word of God, the only infallible standard.
(2) Suitable in its application; adapted to the circumstances of the case, and of the individual addressed. Truth misapplied becomes error.
(3) Loving, in its mannertruth spoken in love. Truth, spoken harshly and uncharitably, irritates rather than heals the wounded spirit. Falsehood n the answers and arguments of Jobs friends, inasmuch as they maintained
(1) That God acts, in His government of the world, in a way which He does not; uniformly visiting the sins of the ungodly upon them in the present life, and rewarding the godly with worldly prosperity and ease.
(2) That, according to these principles, those who are great sufferers must be great sinners.
(3) That the only way to be delivered from such suffering, and to enjoy such prosperity, is by acknowledgment of sin and a turning from it to God,to be with that view immediately made by the sufferer, and therefore by Job himself. Malice or evil intent in their answers; their aim being to make Job a grievous transgressor in the sight of God, and one who was suffering justly the punishment of his sinsthe devices the wrongfully imagined against him (ch. 21). Their offence not only against truth but charity.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
F.
INTEGRITY, PROSPERITY, AND THE PRESENCE OF THE HOLY RIGHTEOUS GOD (Job. 21:1-34)
1.
Job pleads for a sympathetic hearing. (Job. 21:1-6)
TEXT 21:16
21 Then Job answered and said,
2 Hear diligently my speech;
And let this be your consolations.
3 Suffer me, and I also will speak;
And after that I have spoken, mock on.
4 As for me, is my complaint to man?
And why should I not be impatient?
5 Mark me, and be astonished,
And lay your hand upon your mouth.
6 Even when I remember I am troubled,
And horror taketh hold on my flesh.
COMMENT 21:16
Job. 21:1For the sixth time Job responds to Zophar out of the depths of his realistic experience. Here we vividly see the radical distinction between his experience and the a priori theories of his three friends. Job confronts their thesis that the righteous are happy and the wicked are miserable with a counter claimthat the wicked are often prosperous. This Jobian speech falls into five sections: (1) Job appeals for a hearingJob. 21:2-6; (2) The wicked prosperJob. 21:7-16; (3) He asks, Do the wicked suffer?Job. 21:17-22; (4) Death levels everyone and everythingJob. 21:23-26; and (5) Universal experience contradicts the arguments of his three comfortersJob. 21:27-34. It is the only fully polemical speech from Job.
Job. 21:2Eliphaz had identified his words with the consolation of GodJob. 15:11. Now Job asks them to consider real consolation. He has emerged victorious over the temptation presented to him by both his friends and his wife. He has asserted his faith that God knows his innocence and will ultimately testify to it. He still believes in Gods goodness and has a basis from which to reject the accusing recommendations of his friends. He passes from mere defensiveness to frontal attack. Theologically, his friends have attacked him from behind the bulwark of the eternal universal principle of retributive justice. Job brilliantly and relentlessly undertakes to falsify the principle from which they continually deduced so many erroneous conclusions. First, it is not universally self-evident that God sends retributive justice in this life (note similar argument in Kants Critique of Practical Judgment). Secondly, God does not destroy the godless in a momentJob. 21:5-6; and thirdly, that the impious do not always prosper, but they often doJer. 12:1 ff; Ecc. 7:15. Job asks only for their discreet silence and attentive ears.
Job. 21:3The verbs preceding this verse are all plural, but here this one is in the singular. Job is focusing attention on Zophars just-ended discourse on the fate of the wicked. After what I have to say, you will no longer mock me.
Job. 21:4Jobs complaint is against God, not man. He would expect at least sympathy from man. He receives no consolation from either God or man. He is protesting the moral anomalies that God allows in His world. Job has inquired of God, but God remains silent; therefore, Job is impatient (lit. my spirit is short).
Job. 21:5-6Laying ones hand over the mouth is the gesture of awe and voluntary silence.[233] Jobs friends will be silent when they hear and understand his argument concerning the prosperity of the wicked. He shudders at the very thought of an amoral universe.
[233] See J. B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Pictures Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton: University Press), p. 333, for picture of Mesopotamian seal cylinder from the third millennium B.C. depicting Etana flying heavenward on eagles wings while one onlooker has his mouth covered.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXI.
(1) But Job answered.Having, in Job 19, declared his belief in a retribution to come, Job now proceeds to traverse more directly Zophars last contention, and to show that even in this life there is not the retribution which he maintained there was.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
JOB’S SIXTH REPLY.
1. But Job answered The friends have to the last adhered to their main proposition, that the wicked are punished in this life. Job now meets it for the first time face to face; devoting the entire speech to its consideration. He more discreetly than before makes an appeal to facts, and shows that in their entire life the wicked are eminently prosperous, and that even in the article of death their lot is easier than that of the righteous. The friends have made appeal again and again to the wisdom of the ancients; he, on the other hand, summons travelers, men of wide knowledge, who testify (Job 21:28-33) that the punishment of the wicked is in the next life a truth “the friends,” in their dogmatism, have ignored; that in this life the wicked are above law and responsibility to man; and that their memory; instead of perishing, as the friends maintained, lived on in magnificent tombs and the abiding power of an evil life. In thus urging the general prosperity of the wicked, Job has pushed his plea to the extreme of dogmatism, and in argument committed an error similar to that of his opponents, thus leaving a gap in his defence which gives rise to a renewal of the controversy. It is to be remarked that the first of Job’s discourses since his triumph of faith in the nineteenth chapter, (25-27,) like the others yet to follow, is marked by calm and dispassionate argument; by a greater freedom from personalities; by a more confident view of the darkest phases of evil; and by a faith which the darkness around him has no more power to disturb than the shadow of the night has to unsettle the fastnesses of the mountain, all which is in itself an earnest of the victory soon to follow.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
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?
Job 21:21
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Job’s Dialogue with Three Friends – Job 3:1 to Job 31:40, which makes up the major portion of this book, consists of a dialogue between Job and his three friends. In this dialogue, Job’s friends engage in three rounds of accusations against Job, with him offering three defenses of his righteousness. Thus, Job and his friends are able to confirm each of their views with three speeches, since the Scriptures tell us that a matter is confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses (2Co 13:1). The underlying theme of this lengthy dialogue is man’s attempt to explain how a person is justified before God. Job will express his intense grief (Job 3:1-26), in which his three friends will answer by finding fault with Job. He will eventually respond to this condemnation in a declaration of faith that God Himself will provide a redeemer, who shall stand on earth in the latter days (Job 19:25-27). This is generally understood as a reference to the coming of Jesus Christ to redeem mankind from their sins.
Job’s declaration of his redeemer in Job 19:23-29, which would be recorded for ever, certainly moved the heart of God. This is perhaps the most popular passage in the book of Job, and reflects the depth of Job’s suffering and plea to God for redemption. God certainly answered his prayer by recording Job’s story in the eternal Word of God and by allowing Job to meet His Redeemer in Heaven. I can imagine God being moved by this prayer of Job and moving upon earth to provide someone to record Job’s testimony, and moving in the life of a man, such as Abraham, to prepare for the Coming of Christ. Perhaps it is this prayer that moved God to call Abraham out of the East and into the Promised Land.
The order in which these three friends deliver their speeches probably reflects their age of seniority, or their position in society.
Scene 1 First Round of Speeches Job 3:1 to Job 14:22
Scene 2 Second Round of Speeches Job 15:1 to Job 21:34
Scene 3 Third Round of Speeches Job 22:1 to Job 31:40
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Job Appeals for Consideration
v. 1. But Job answered and said, v. 2. Hear diligently my speech and let this be your consolations. v. 3. Suffer me that I may speak, v. 5. Mark me and be astonished and lay your hand upon your mouth, v. 6. Even when I remember, I am afraid,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Job 21:1-34
Job answers Zophar, as he had answered Bildad, in a single not very lengthy chapter. After a few caustic introductory remarks (verses 2-4), he takes up the challenge which Zophar had thrown out, respecting the certain punishment, in this life, of the wicked (Job 20:4-29), and maintains, “in language of unparalleled boldness” (Cook), the converse of the proposition. The wicked, he says, live, grow old, attain to great power, have a numerous and flourishing offspring, prosper, grow rich, spend their time in feasting and jollitynay, openly renounce God and decline to pray to himyet suffer no harm, and when they die, go down to the grave without suffering, “in a moment” (verses 5-15). To the suggestion that from time to time they are cut off suddenly in a signal way, he answers, “How often is this?” or rather, “How seldom!” (verses 17, 18). To the further suggestion that they are punished in their children he replies, “How much better if they were punished in their own persons!” (verses 19-21). As it is, he argues, one event happens to all (verses 23-26). In conclusion, he observes that common opinion supports his view (verses 29-33), and denounces as futile the attempts of his comforters to convince him, since his views and theirs respecting the facts of God’s government are diametrically opposed to each other (verse 34).
Job 21:1, Job 21:2
But Job answered and said, Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations. As ye have no other consolation to offer me, at least attend diligently to what I say. That will be some comfort to me, and I will accept it in lieu of the consolations which I might have looked for at your hands.
Job 21:3
Suffer me that I may speak; or, suffer me, and I also will speak. There is an emphasis on the “I” (). Job implies that his opponents are not allowing him his fair share of the argument, which is an accusation that can scarcely be justified. Since the dialogue opened, Job’s speeches have occupied eleven chapters, those of his “comforters” seven only. But a controversialist who has much to say is apt to think that sufficient time is not allowed him. And after that I have spoken, mock on. Job does not hope to convince, or silence, or shame the other interlocutors. When he has said his say, all that he expects is mockery and derision.
Job 21:4
As for me, is my complaint to man? Do I address myself to man, pour out my complaint to him, and expect him to redress my wrongs? No; far otherwise. I address myself to God, from whom alone I can look for effectual assistance. And if it were so; rather, and if so, if this is the case, if my appeal is to God, and he makes me no answer, then why should not my spirit be troubled? or, Why should I not be impatient? (Revised Version). Job thinks that he has a right to be impatient, if God does not vouchsafe him an answer.
Job 21:5, Job 21:6
Here we have an abrupt transition. Job is about to controvert Zophar’s theory of the certain retribution that overtakes the wicked man in this life, and to maintain that, on the contrary, he usually prospers (verses 7-18). Knowing that, in thus running counter to the general religious teaching, he will arouse much horror and indignation on the part of those who hear him, he prefaces his remarks with a notice that they will cause astonishment, and an acknowledgment that he himself cannot reflect upon the subject without a feeling of alarm and dismay. He thus hopes partially to disarm his opponents.
Job 21:5
Mark me; literally, look to me; i.e. “attend to me,” for I am about to say something well worth attention. And be astonished. Prepare yourselves, i.e; for something that will astonish you. And lay your hand upon your mouth. Harpocrates, the Egyptian god of silence, was often represented with his finger on his lips. The symbolism is almost universal. Job begs his auditors to “refrain their lips,” and, however much astonished, to keep silence until he has concluded.
Job 21:6
Even when I remember; i.e. “when I think upon the subject.” I am afraid, and trembling taketh held on my flesh. A shudder runs through his whole frame. His words will, he knows, seem to verge upon impiety.
Job 21:7
Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Job asks for an explanation of the facts which his own experience has impressed upon him. He has seen that “the wicked live” quite as long as the righteous, that in many cases they attain to a ripe old age, and become among the powerful of the earth. The great “pyramid kings” of Egypt, whose cruel oppressions were remembered down to the time of Herodotus (Herod; 2.124-128), reigned respectively, according to Egyptian tradition, sixty-three and sixty-six years(Manetho ap. Euseb; ‘Chronicles Can.,’ pars 2.). Rameses II; the cruel oppressor of the Jews, and the Pharaoh from whom Moses fled, had a reign of sixty-seven years.
Job 21:8
Their seed is established in their sight with them (comp. Psa 17:14; and see below, Job 27:14). It could scarcely be doubted that the wicked had as many children as the righteous, and often established them in posts of honour and emolument. And their offspring before their eyes. A pleonastic repetition.
Job 21:9
Their houses are safe from fear; literally, their houses are in peace, without fear. Neither is the rod of God upon them. So Asaph, “They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men” (Psa 73:5). The chastening rod of God does not seem to smite them.
Job 21:10
Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; rather, their cow conceiveth Shor (), which is of both genders, must here be taken as feminine. Their cow (rather, their heifer) calveth, and casteth not her calf. Both conception and birth are prosperous; there is neither barrenness nor abortion.
Job 21:11
They send forth their little ones like a flock. Free, i.e. joyful and frolicsome, to disport themselves as they please. The picture is charmingly idyllic. And their children dance. Frisk, i.e. “and skip, and leap,” like the young of cattle full of health, and in the enjoyment of plenty” (Lee).
Job 21:12
They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. The “timbrel” () is probably the tambourine, an instrument used from a remote antiquity by the Orientals. It consisted of a round hoop of wood, into which were sometimes inserted jingling rings of metal, and upon which was stretched at one end a sheet of parchment. It is represented on the monuments both of Egypt and Phoenicia. The harp () was, in the early times, a very simple instrument, consisting of a framework of wood, across which were stretched from four to seven strings, which were of catgut and of different lengths, and were sounded either with the hand or with a plectrum. The “organ” () was, of course, not an organ in the modem sense of the word. It was either a pan’s pipe, which is a very primitive instrument, or more probably a double reed blown from the end, like a flageolet, examples of which are found in the remains both of Egypt and Phoenicia.
Job 21:13
They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. They die, i.e.‘ without suffering from any prolonged or severe illness, such as that grievous affliction from which Job himself was suffering. Probably Job does not mean to maintain all this absolutely, or as universally the case, but he wishes to force his friends to acknowledge that there are many exceptions to their universal law, that wickedness is always visited in this world with condign punishment, and he wants them to account for them exceptions (see verse 7).
Job 21:14
Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us. It is this impunity which leads the wicked to renounce God altogether. They think that they get on very well without God, and consequently have no need to serve him. Job puts their thoughts into words (verses 14, 15), and thus very graphically represents their tone of feeling. For we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. The wicked feel no interest in God; they do not trouble themselves about him; his ways are “far above out of their sight,” and they do not care to know them.
Job 21:15
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? “Who is Jehovah,” said Pharaoh to Moses, “that I should obey his voice? I know not Jehovah” (Exo 5:2). So the ungodly in Job’s time. They pretend to have no knowledge of God, no sense of his claims upon them, no internal consciousness that they are bound to worship and obey him. They are agnostics of a pronounced type, or at least they profess to be such. What profit, they ask, should we have, if we pray to him? Expediency is everything with them. Will serving God do them any good? Will it advance their worldly interests? Persuade them of that, and they will be willing to pay him, at any rate, a lip-service. But, having prospered so long and so greatly without making any religious profession, they see no reason to believe that they would prosper more if they made one.
Job 21:16
Lo, their good is not in their hand; i.e. their prosperity is not in their own power, not the result of their own efforts. God’s providence is, at least, one element in it, since he exalts men and abases them, he casteth down and lifteth up. Hence it would seem to follow that they are his favourites. Shall Job therefore cast in his lot with them? No, he says, a thousand times, No! The counsel of the wicked is far from me; or better, be the counsel of the wicked far from me! I will have nothing to do with it. I will cling to God. I will maintain my integrity. Satan had charged Job with serving God for the sake of temporal reward. Job had disproved the charge by still clinging to God, notwithstanding all his afflictions. Now he goes further, and declines to throw in his lot with the wicked, even although it should appear that the balance of prosperity is with them.
Job 21:17
How oft is the candle of the wicked put out? This is not an exclamation, but a question, and is well rendered in the Revised Version, “How oft is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?” Is not the signal downfall of the wicked prosperous man a comparatively rare occur-fence? How oft cometh their destruction upon them! When the problem here propounded came before Asaph, he seems to have solved it by the supposition that in all cases retribution visited the wicked in this life, and that they were cast down from their prosperity. “I went,” he says, “into the sanctuary of God; then understood I the end of these men. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image” (Psa 73:17-20). Job maintains that such a catastrophe happens but seldom, and that for the most part the wicked go down to the grave in peace. God distributeth sorrows in his anger. This is hot an independent clause. The sense runs on: How off is it that the candle of the wicked is put out, and that destruction cometh upon them‘ and God showers sorrows upon them in his anger? (compare the comment on the next verse).
Job 21:18
They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away; rather, How oft is it that they are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff, etc.? The construction begun in the first clause of Job 21:17 is carried on to the end of Job 21:18. “Stubble” and “chaff” are ordinary figures for foolish and ungodly men, whom the blast of God’s anger swoops away to destruction (comp. Exo 15:7; Psa 1:4; Psa 35:5; Psa 83:13; Isa 27:13; Isa 29:5; Isa 41:2, etc.).
Job 21:19
God layeth up his iniquity for his children. Job supposes his opponents to make this answer to his arguments. “God,” they may say, “punishes the wicked man in his children” (comp. Exo 20:5). Job does not deny that he may do so, but suggests a better course in the next sentence. He rewardeth him; rather, let him recompense it on himselflet him make the wicked man himself suffer, and then he shall know it. He shall perceive and know that he is receiving the due reward of his wickedness.
Job 21:20
His eyes shall see his destruction (or, let his own eyes see his destruction), and he shall drink (or, let him drink) of the wrath of the Almighty. It will impress him far more with a sense of his wickedness, and of his guilt in God’s sight, if he receives punishment in his own person, than if he merely suffers vicariously through his children.
Job 21:21
For what pleasure hath he in his house after him? What does he care, ordinarily, about the happiness of his children and descendants? “Apres moi le deluge” is the selfish thought of bad men generally, when they cast a glance at the times which are to follow their decease. The fate of those whom they leave behind them troubles them but little. It would scarcely cause them a pang to know that their posterity would soon be “clean put out.” When the number of his months is cut off in the midst; i.e. when his appointed time is come, and he knows that “the number of his months’ is accomplished.
Job 21:22
Shall any teach God knowledge? Job has been searching the “deep things of God,” speculating upon the method of the Divine government of the world, he has perhaps rashly ventured to “rush in where angels fear to tread.” Now, however, he cheeks himself with the confession that God’s ways are inscrutable, his knowledge far beyond any knowledge possessed by man. Men must not presume to judge him; it is for him to judge them. Seeing he judgeth those that are high. None so exalted, none so advanced in wisdom and knowledge, none so venturesome in sounding depths that they cannot fathom, but God is above them, judges them, knows their hearts, and, according to his infallible wisdom, condemns or approves them. This is a chastening thought, and its effect on Job is to make him contract his sails, and, leaving the empyrean, content himself with s lower flight. Previously he has maintained, as if he were admitted to the Divine counsels, that the prosperity of the wicked was a rule of God’s government. Now he goes no further than to say that there is no rule discoverable. Happiness and misery are dispensedas far as man can seeon no definite principle, and, at the end, one lot happens to all: all go down into the tomb, and lie in the dust, and the worms devour them (verses 23-26).
Job 21:23
One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. Some continue healthy and vigorous in body, peaceful and satisfied in mind, up to the very moment of their departure (comp. Job 21:13, “They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave”).
Job 21:24
His breasts are full of milk; rather, his milk-pails, as in the margin. The main wealth of the time being cattle, the man whose milk-pails are always full is the prosperous man. And his bones are moistened with marrow. Being thus wealthy and prosperous, his body is fat and well nourished.
Job 21:24
And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul. Others have to suffer terribly before death comes to them. Their whole life is wretched, and their spirit is embittered by their misfortunes. And never eateth with pleasure; rather, and never tasteth of good (see the Revised Version).
Job 21:26
They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them. However different the circumstances of their life, men are alike in their death. One event happens to all. All die, are laid in the dust, and become the prey of worms.
Job 21:27
Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices (or, surmisings) which ye wrongfully imagine against me. I know, i.e.‘ what you think of me. I am quite aware that you regard me as having brought my afflictions upon myself by wicked deeds, which I have succeeded in keeping secret. You have not openly stated your surmises. but it has been easy for me to “read between the lines,” and understand the true meaning of your insinuations, which are all wrongful and unjust.
Job 21:28
For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? i.e. “What has become of the house of the powerful man (Job himself)? How is it fallen and gone to decay!” And where are the dwelling-places (literally, the tent of the habitations) of the wicked! Again Job is intended, although the insult is veiled by the plural form being used. Job supposes that his opponents will meet his statement, that the righteous are afflicted and the wicked prosper, by pointing to his own case as one in which wickedness has been punished.
Job 21:29
Have ye not asked them that go by the way? Job refers his opponents to the first comer ( )the merest passer-by. Let them ask his opinion, and see if he does not consider that, as a general rule, the wicked prosper. And do ye not know their tokens? or, their observations; i.e. the conclusions to which they have come upon the subject from their own observation and experience.
Job 21:30
These conclusions are now set forth. They are, that the wicked is reserved for (or rather, spared in) the day of destruction, and that they shall be brought forth to (rather, removed out of the way in) the day of wrath. This, according to Job, was the popular sentiment of his time; and, no doubt, there is in all ages a large mass of fleeting opinion to the same effect. Striking examples of wickedness in high places draw attention, and provoke indignation, and are much talked about; whence arises an idea that such eases are common, and ultimately, by an unscientific generalization in the vulgar mind, that they form the rule, and not the exception to the rule. It requires some power of intellect to take a broad and comprehensive view over the whole of human life, and fairly to strike the balance. Such a view seems to have been taken by Bishop Butler (among others); and the conclusion, reached by calm investigation and philosophic thought, is that, on the whole, ever in this life, the balance of advantage rests with the virtuous, who really prosper more than the wicked, have greater and higher satisfactions, escape numerous forms of suffering, and approach more nearly to happiness. An exact apportionment of happiness and misery to desert is a thing that certainly in this life does not take place; but the tendency of virtue to accumulate to itself other goods is clear; and Job’s pessimistic view is certainly an untrue one, which we may suspect that he maintained, rather from a love of paradox, and from a desire to puzzle and confuse his friends, than from any conviction of its absolute truth.
Job 21:31
Who shall declare his way to his face? rather, Who shall denounce? i.e. Who will be bold enough to tell the rich and powerful man that he is wicked? that his “way,” or course of life, is altogether wrong? And who shall repay him what he hath done? Still less will any one be found who will take upon him to attack such a one, to prosecute him in courts or otherwise bring him to condign punishment. Thus, being castigated neither by God nor man, he enjoys complete impunity.
Job 21:32
Yet shall he be brought to the grave; rather, he moreover is borne (in pomp) to the grave. Even in death the advantage is still with the wicked man. He is borne in procession to the gravea mausoleum or a family vaultby a long train of mourners, who weep and lament for him, and pay him funeral honours. The poor virtuous man, on the other hand, is hastily thrust under the soil. And shall remain in in the tomb; or shall keep watch over his tomb. The allusion is probably to the custom, common certainly in Egypt and Phoenicia, of carving a figure of the deceased on the lid of his sarcophagus, to keep as it were watch over the remains deposited within. The figure was sometimes accompanied by an inscription, denouncing curses on those who should dare to violate the tomb or disturb the remains.
Job 21:33
The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him. In his mausoleum, by the side of the running stream, the very clods of the valley, wherein his tomb is placed, shall be sweet and pleasant to himdeath thus losing half its terrors. And all men shall draw after him. Some explain this of the lengthy funeral procession which follows his corpse to the grave, and take the next clause of the multitude, not forming part of the procession, who gather together at the tomb beforehand, waiting to see the obsequies; but, as Rosenmuller remarks, this explanation seems precluded by the previous mention of the funeral procession (Job 21:32), besides being otherwise unsatisfactory. The real reference is probably to the common topic of consolation implied in the “Omnes eodem cogimur” of Horace. He is happy in his death, or at any rate not unhappy, seeing that he only suffers the common fate. He will draw after him all future men, who will likewise inevitably perish, just as there are innumerable before him, who have travelled the same read and reached the same resting-place.
Job 21:34
How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood? Your position, that the godly always prosper, while the wicked are afflicted and brought low, being an absolutely false one, your attempts to console and comfort me are wholly vain and futile. Why continue them?
Most commentators consider the second colloquy here to end, and a pause to occur, before Eliphaz resumes the argument.
HOMILETICS
Job 21:1-34
Job to Zophar: Audi alteram partem.
I. THE SPIRIT OF JOB‘S REPLY.
1. Intense earnestness. Indicated by the respectful invitation addressed to his friends to attend to his discourse, the nervous reduplication of the verb “hear,” and the assurance that such behaviour on their part would more effectually console him than all their eloquent and laboured harangues. Job’s character of eminent sanctity, Job’s condition of extreme wretchedness, and Job’s condemnation by the three friends, all entitled him to receive from them a generous and patient hearing. Good men and great sufferers are usually in earnest when they do speak, especially when justifying the ways of God to man, and are well worthy of being listened to for both their own sakes and their subject’s. It is one of a saint’s sweetest consolations to be allowed to vindicate the cause of God and truth.
2. Absolute confidence. So satisfied did Job feel that what he was about to advance was in perfect accord with truth and right, that he was completely indifferent to all personal considerations in the declaration of it. It might expose him to further ridicule and calumnious animadversion, might intensify the suspicions already existing against him, and even lead to angrier and more direct accusations. He was prepared to meet these for the sake of liberty to publish what in his inmost conscience he believed to be the truth. Job’s example is well worthy of imitation. First, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind that what he purposes to speak is true, and then let him manifest the courage of his convictions by suffering for them if need be.
3. Self-justification. Job vindicates himself against the oft-repeated charge of impatience.
(1) Admitting to his friends that their accusation was substantially correct. His spirit had been “shortened” (verse 4) by the perplexing enigma of Divine providence over which he had been brooding, as afterwards was that of David (Psa 37:1), of Asaph (Psa 73:3). of Jeremiah (Jer 12:1); as men’s spirits are sometimes shortened, irritated, and rendered impatient, by difficulties (Num 21:4), temptations (Jdg 16:16), afflictions (Exo 6:9); and as God, more humano, represents his spirit as being shortened, filled with the impatience of compassion, through beholding the misery of man (Jdg 10:16).
(2) Denying their right to impute blame to him on that account, seeing that his complaint was directed against, not them, but God (verse 4). It was not their lack of sympathy with his sufferings that annoyed him, or even their virulent aspersions of his character, but the apparent inequality of God’s dealings with himself. A saint’s greatest trials always come from God. A good man can live without the commiseration or approbation of his fellows, but not without the communion or favour of his God (Psa 30:5). The hardest problem a sanctified intelligence has to solve is not to account for the oppressions and injustices of man, but to solve seeming inconsistencies in God’s dispensations.
(3) Maintaining the perfect reasonableness of his behaviour in so manifesting shortness of spirit under the awful mystery of Divine providence. If they, his friends, were in any respect different from him, it was because they were incapable of discerning the mystery. They had simply shut their eyes upon the hard problem before which he (Job) staggered, and then affirmed that the problem did not exist. So, often, good people to-day, through lack of intellectual capacity or spiritual sincerity, either do not see or do not steadily look at the difficulties by which earnest seekers after truth are perplexed, and accordingly withhold from these all expression of sympathy for their doubt, and unfeelingly condemn them for their unbelief; whereas could good people only see the difficulties which stand in the way of those whom they call sceptics, infidels, heretics, they would at least commiserate, if they did not participate in, the hesitation and uncertainty they condemn.
4. Profound reverence. Job could not contemplate the awful problem to which he alluded without trembling and bewilderment, The prosperity of the wicked was a theme that filled him with silent astonishment, that dazed his intellect the more he reflected on it, that seized his spirit with a sort of stupefactionseeming as it did on the one hand (i.e. on the theory of the friends) to suggest blasphemous thoughts of God, and on the other hand (i.e. on the hypothesis advanced by him) to foreshadow appalling woes for the wicked. Job, who was not terrified by Eliphaz’s spectre, who was not moved by the prospect of Hades, was overpowered with consternation at what appeared to tarnish the Divine glory or to impair the happiness of man. So Abraham was jealous of the Divine honour (Gen 18:25), and David was afraid of the Divine judgments upon the wicked (Psa 119:20). So by all men, and in particular by all saints, should God’s Person be held in reverence (Psa 89:7), and God’s Word be listened to with awe (Isa 66:2), and God’s works and ways in both the Church and the world be studied with silent wonder (Psa 46:10; Hab 2:20; Zep 1:7; Zec 2:13).
II. THE ARGUMENT OF JOB‘S REPLY. The dogma of Zophar and his companions was contradicted by:
1. The facts of experience. (Verses 7-21.) In enlarging upon these, Job draws attention to three points.
(1) The prosperity of the wicked (verses 7-13). This he represents as:
(a) Long-continued, “the wicked” being permitted “to live and become old” (verse 7). Eliphaz had affirmed that the ungodly transgressor should die before his time (Job 15:20, Job 15:32), and Zophar had declared that the joy of the hypocrite was but for a moment (Job 20:5). These statements, Job asserts, were notoriously incorrect.
(b) Greatly augmented, “the wicked’ not simply living long and happily, but, as if once more to confute Eliphaz (Job 15:29) and Zophar (Job 20:15), becoming “mighty in power, “attaining to vast wealth, and therefore to what wealth representsinfluence, honour, pleasurethe three principal ingredients in the world’s cup of felicity,
(c) Firmly established, the good fortunes of the wicked descending to their families, who, in express contradiction to the teaching of Eliphaz (Job 15:34), Bildad (Job 18:19), and Zophar (Job 20:10), grow up to manhood and womanhood, and permanently settle beside the patriarchal tentsone of the best and most highly valued blessings a parent can enjoy, as Job formerly knew from personal experience (Job 1:4, Job 1:5).
(d) Perfectly secured, their houses being safe from fear, or “in peace, without alarm,” and having no rod of God upon them (verse 9), as his had when attacked by Chaldean robbers, and desolated by Divine judgmentsagain in flagrant antithesis to Eliphaz (Job 15:34), Bildad (Job 18:15), and Zophar (Job 20:26).
(e) Richly varied, consisting of material increase (verse 10), in opposition to Eliphaz (Job 15:29) and Zophar (Job 20:28); family enlargement (verse 11), against Bildad (Job 18:19); and social felicity (verse 12), instead of the lifelong misery awarded to them by Eliphaz (Job 15:20), Bildad (Job 18:11-14), and Zophar (Job 20:18).
(f) Absolutely uninterrupted, their affluence and ease never ceasing throughout life, but attending them to the grave’s mouth, into which they quietly and quickly drop without experiencing either physical disease or mental misery (verse 13), thus attaining to the very culmination of mundane felicitya picture widely different from that sketched by Eliphaz (Job 15:24), Bildad (Job 18:18), and Zophar (Job 20:11).
(g) Divinely bestowed, Job adding (verse 16) that the true source of all the felicity and prosperity enjoyed by the wicked, though not recognized as such by them, was the hand of God, who is the primal Fountain of every benefit conferred on man, whether temporal or eternal, material or spiritual (Jas 1:17), who makes his sun to shine upon the evil and the good (Mat 5:45), and who so deals with the ungodly to lead them to repentance (Rom 2:4).
(2) The impiety of the prosperous (verses 14-16). This Job depicts in four particulars:
(a) The strangeness of it. On the theory of the friends, these favourites of fortune ought to have been good; “and yet” (verse 14) they were the opposite. Though designed to engender piety in the heart, material prosperity, in point of fact, seldom does. Yet God’s goodness to the sinner is an aggravation of the sinner’s criminality against God.
(b) The wickedness of it. The prosperous say to God, “Depart from us,” not as Peter said to Christ (Luk 5:8), but rather as the Gadarenes besought him (Luk 8:37), desiring that God would leave them to the enjoyment of their lusts, as these latter wished to have their swine, not troubling them with either the reproofs of conscience, the checks of Providence, the precepts of his Law, or the prickings of his Spirit. What the sinner most fears the saint most desiresthe presence and fellowship of God. What makes the wicked man’s hell constitutes the good man’s heaven.
(c) The foolishness of it. The arguments adduced in its support are three: that the ways of God are undesirablewhich was not the opinion of Enoch (Gen 5:21-24), or of Noah (Gen 6:9), of David (Psa 138:5), of Solomon (Pro 3:17), of Isaiah, (Isa 55:2), of Jeremiah (Jer 31:12-14), of St. Paul (Php 4:4), of St. Peter (1Pe 1:8), or of St. John (1Jn 5:3), and certainly not of Christ (Mat 11:28-30); that the service of God is unreasonablewhich it cannot be, considering who God is, Elohim, Jehovah, Shaddai, the All-powerful, All-sufficient, Self-existent, wonder-working Supreme, and the relations he sustains to man as Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, Judge; that the worship of God is unprofitablewhich it is not, since, besides having the promise which belongs to godliness generally (1Ti 4:8), prayer has the special guarantee that its desires shall be fulfilled (Mat 7:7; Joh 15:7), while it is inconceivable that a creature could commune with his Creator, or a saint hold fellowship with his Saviour, without experiencing therefrom, in continually augmenting measure, peace, joy, illumination, holiness, everything comprehended in what is styled “growth in grace.”
(d) The repulsiveness of it. The counsel of the wicked Job regards with abhorrence (verse 16); and so do all truly pious souls.
2. The plan of providence. (Verses 22-26.) This Job characterizes as
(1) arranged by Divine wisdom,to maintain a theory out of harmony with which, therefore, was a practical impeachment of the Divine wisdom, an attempt to teach God (verse 22), who can receive no accession to his knowledge or understanding from any of his creatures, an assumption of ability to prescribe to him the scheme in accordance with which his universe should be governed;
(2) all-embracing in its sweep, comprehending in its provisions and enactments all creatures from the lowest to the highest, “those in heaven,” i.e. angels, authorities, and powers, and “the highest” on earth, lordly potentates, mighty magnates, pretentious sages, as well as common serfs and lowly peasants, being subject to his sway, and therefore again, because of its all-inclusive character, scarcely admitting of criticism on the part of puny man;
(3) non-retributive in its character, frequently assigning to the wicked man a life of ease and prosperity (verses 23, 24), and to the godly man a pilgrimage of poverty ending in a bitter death (verse 25), all the same as if it were regardless of the difference between virtue and vice, piety and wickedness, holiness and sin; and
(4) indiscriminate in its execution, reducing good and bad alike to the same dead level of quality in the grave (verse 26), and therefore as unlike as possible to the plan of providence which should have prevailed had the theory of the friends been correct.
3. The testimony of ordinary men. (Verses 27-33.) The “tokens” of “them that go by the way,” i.e. the observations made by them, abundantly declared six things concerning the ungodly, viz.
(1) that they were not usually overwhelmed with retribution on earth and in time, as the friends asserted (verse 28), with special reference to Job (verse 27), whose homestead and family had been engulfed in ruin by swift calamity;
(2) that they were generally exempted from the ills of life, even in a season of widespread adversity (verse 30), escaping the stroke of evil fortune by which other and better men were prostrated;
(3) that they were commonly allowed to pass through the world without either punishment or reproof (verse 31), amenable to no human law, suffering no sort of check in their wickedness, because no one was bold enough to bear witness to them of their misdeeds, as Nathan did to David (2Sa 12:7), Elijah to Ahab (1Ki 18:17), and John the Baptist to Herod (Mat 14:4), or powerful enough to exact retribution for their offences;
(4) that honour and prosperity attended them even to their graves, the wicked tyrant’s lifeless body being conducted, as were the corpses of rich men in the days of the Preacher (Ecc 8:10), and as probably was that of Dives (Luk 16:22), with immense pomp and magnificent ceremony, to “the vaults or chambers in sepulchral caverns or tombs in which the dead were laid” (Carey), where affectionate friends and relatives shall watch over his tomb (Good, Fry), or he himself shall keep guard over his heap, i.e. over the mound or pile in which he lies buried, looking down upon it in monumental effigy;
(5) that even in the grave they suffer no disadvantage in comparison with other men, “the clods of the valley” being as “sweet” unto them (verse 33)as to the pious, which may be true so far as the insensate dust is concerned, though of course it is only an imagination that the tenants of the tomb can feel either pain or pleasure (Ecc 9:5, Ecc 9:6), but implies nothing as to the condition of their souls, which we know to be after death in a situation widely different from that of the righteous (Luk 16:23); and
(6) that, in so far as death itself may be accounted an evil, it is one which they share in common with the rest of the race, every one in his turn coming after, as innumerable multitudes have already gone before, them (verse 33).
III. THE APPLICATION OF JOB‘S REPLY.
1. The consolation of his friends was vain.
(1) It was inefficacious. It did not soothe him in his sorrow or help him to bear his burden, but very much the opposite
(2) It was insincere. It was not really aimed at the comfort of the patriarch at all, but at his condemnation. It exhorted him to penitence instead of aiding him with friendly sympathy.
(3) It was fallacious. It was based on wholly erroneous principles. This Job explicitly asserts.
2. The answers of his friends were wicked.
(1) They were untrue. They misrepresented God by ascribing to him principles of government which he palpably repudiated; and they calumniated him, Job, by imputing to him sins of which he was innocent. Hence to that extent
(2) they were also sinful. They were perfidious attempts to blacken the character of their suffering friend, and to curry favour with the King of heaven.
Learn:
1. That a good man should never weary in contending for the cause of God and truth.
2. That a man who has God and truth upon his side has the best possible allies in debate.
3. That they who have no difficulties in their creeds are not the most likely to be possessed of truth.
4. That the best souls on earth are not necessarily those who have no hard problems to solve.
5. That on the whole continuous prosperity is less desirable as an earthly portion than perpetual adversity.
6. That God confers many of his best gifts upon the worst of menfamilies and flocks upon tyrants, Christ and salvation upon sinners.
7. That great wealth is prone to separate the soul from God.
8. That God’s people should shun the counsel, avoid the company, and abhor the conduct of wicked men.
9. That wicked men’s “Depart from us,” will yet be answered by Christ’s “Depart from me.”
10. That it is better to be God’s wheat than the devil’s chaff, since though the former may be bruised, the latter shall be blown away.
11. That the God who is able to judge angels is not likely to prove incapable of judging men.
12. That the wicked man’s glory upon earth is little better than the paraphernalia of a funeral procession.
13. That God’s ever-watchful eye is a better guardian of a saint’s dust than gilded mausoleums and monumental columns.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Job 21:1-34
Diverse interpretations of life.
The friends of Job remain entrenched in the one firm position, as they think it, which they have from the first taken up. No appeals on his part have availed to soften their hearts, or induce a reconsideration of the rigid theory of suffering which they have adopted. But he now, no longer confining himself to the assertion of his personal innocence, makes an attack upon their position. He dwells upon the great enigma of lifethe prosperity of the wicked through the whole of life, in contrast to the misery and persecution which often fall to the lot of the righteous. In face of these contradictions, it is wrong and malicious of his friends to desire to fix guilt upon him because he suffers.
I. INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS TO THE FRIENDS. (Verses 1-6.) He asks for a patient hearing, because he is not about to complain of man, but of a terrible enigma which may well excite the amazement, the dread wonder of men, as being beyond their power to unravel. He speaks as one the very foundations of whose faith are shaken, as he thinks of this painful and Perplexing “riddle of the earth.” “Because reason cannot comprehend the mystery of the crees, and why nod deals often so hardly with his children, bitter thoughts will arise from time to time in devout hearts, and cause them to tremble in great dismay” (Zeyss). (See Psa 37:1; Psa 73:12; Jer 12:1.) The solid columns of our reason, so to speak, are shaken by doubts of the justice of God’s government of the world.
II. APPEAL TO EXPERIENCE: THE PROSPERITY OF THE WICKED, CONTRASTED WITH THE AFFLICTIONS OF THE RIGHTEOUS, IN THIS LIFE. (Verses 7-26.)
1. Traits of godless prosperity. (Verses 7-16.)
(1) The wicked are fortunate in their persons (verse 7). Instead of being cut off by premature death, as Zophar had maintained, they remain in vigour to a good old age.
(2) In their families. They see their posterity flourishing before them like young scions from the old root (verse 8).
(3) In their houses. Peace dwells there, free from alarm, and no chastising rod of Providence falls upon them (verse 9).
(4) In their herds and flocksthe great elements of Oriental wealth (verses 10, 11).
(5) In their merry life. Sportive throngs of children play around them, full of joyous pranks and frolic, while the sound of music charms the ear (verses 11, 12).
(6) Their easy death. Their days are spent in comfort to the very last, quite in opposition to the gloomy pictures which the friends have drawn of their fearful and violent ends (Job 11:20; Job 18:14; Job 20:11). They disappear suddenly, painlessly, into the unseen worldtheirs is a euthanasia (verse 13)! Such a life may be lived, such a death may be met, without a spark of religion to justify or explain it (verses 14, 15). They are men, these wicked ones, whose language to God has been, “Depart from us!” Their happiness awakens no gratitude towards its Source; they deem worship and prayer to be useless. Job proceeds with his description, and declares further, to support his position, “Lo, not in their hand stands their good.” That is, not they are, but God is himself, the Author of their prosperity; and it is this which makes the problem so dark and hard to solve. “The counsel of the wicked be far from reel’ (verse 16). Here flashes out once more the true, deep faith of the patriarch. Despite all the mystery and all the temptation, he will endure to the end; never will he renounce his God (Job 1:11; Job 2:5).
2. These lessons of experience confirmed, with reference to the positions of the friends. (Verses 17-21.) Bildad had spoken (Job 18:5, Job 18:12) of the quenching of the light of the wicked man and of his sudden overthrow. Job questions the universal application of this. “How often,” etc.? is here equivalent to “How seldom,” etc.! How often does God distribute sorrows in his anger? with allusion to Job 20:23 (Job 20:17). This doubting questioning still continues in Job 20:18, “How often do they become as straw before the wind, and like chaff which the tempest carries away?” (see Job 20:8, Job 20:9). “God lays up for his children his calamity?” referring to Eliphaz’s words (Job 20:4) and Zophar’s (Job 20:10). Job proceeds (verse 20) to refute this theory of satisfaction by substitution. “Let his eyes see his destruction; and of the fiery wrath of the Almighty let him drink!” The allusion is to Zophar (Job 20:23). And further, against this theory (verse 21); in his dull insensibility the wicked man cares nought for the fate of his posterity. “For what pleasure is his house after him?”what interest or concern has the selfish egotist in the sufferings of his descendants after he is dead and gone? And if this be so, how can it be alleged that the wicked man is punished in his posterity? “If the number of his moons is allotted to him.” The thought is that the selfish, pleasure-seeking bad man is content, if only he lives out the full measure of his days. What amidst these perplexities can keep the soul true to God and steadfast in the pursuit of goodness? Experience suggests these doubts; and a larger experience must solve them. The Christian knows that in God’s ordering of life the outward prosperity is often unrelated to moral worth. The good things of this world cannot satisfy; without a good conscience earthly happiness is impossible. Often the worldly prosperity enjoyed by the bad man is the means of his destruction. This is not the scene of final recompense and retribution. Doubtless God, whose counsels are inscrutable, will indemnify pious sufferers for these earthly privations.
3. Restatement of the enigma. (Verses 22-26.) The contrast in men’s destinies to our expectations involves a Divine counsel which we may not presume to understand. “Shall one teach God knowledge, who judges those that are high?” (verse 22). The friends had brought this thought forward (Job 4:18; Job 15:15) with the view of supporting their narrow theory of retribution. Conversely, Job would refute by the same means this short-sighted view, pointing to the unfathomable depth and mystery of the counsels and laws of God for the government of the world. Two examples illustrate this. One man dies in bodily ease and comforthis troughs full of milk, strong and vigorous to the marrow of his bones (verses 23, 24). Another dies with bitterness in his soul, and has not enjoyed good (verse 25).And yet they are united in one common fate, though their moral worth is so different and so contrasted. “With one another they lie on the dust of the grave, and the worms cover them.” “Both, heirs to some six feet of clod, are equal in the earth at last” (verse 26).
III. CORRECTION OF HIS FRIENDS FOR THEIR PARTIAL JUDGMENT OF THE OUTWARD CONDITION OF MEN. (Verses 27-34.) He knows their thoughts, and the malice with which they ill-treat him, with the object of proving him by any means, fair or unfair, a hypocrite. “Where,” they say, “is the house of the tyrant? and where the tent inhabited by wicked men?” Job alludes still to the repeated descriptions of Eliphaz and Bildad (Job 15:34; Job 18:15, Job 18:21) of the overthrow of the tent of the wicked man (verse 28). Have they, then, not asked the wanderers by the way (Lam 1:12; Psa 80:12), and will they mistake their tokens? The instances of prosperous bad men and unhappy good men which these persons can producethey must not misunderstand nor reject them. The “tokens” are the memorable and wonderful events of this kind (verse 29). Then follow the summary contents of these people’s experiences (verse 30): “That on the day of destruction the wicked is spared, on the day of wrath they are led away” from its devastating fury, so that they suffer nothing. “Who will show him his way to his face? and if he has acted, who will repay it to him?” (verse 31). This is Job’s question. It concerns God, the unfathomably wise and mighty Author of the destinies of men. “And he” (alluding to verse 30) “is brought to burial” in honour and pomp, “and on a mound he keeps watch,” like one immortalized in a statue or tomb. His tumulus remains to record his name and memory, while Bildad had described the memory of the wicked as perishing from the earth, his name being forgotten. Verse 33, “The clods of the valley lie softly upon him”the valleys being the favourite burying-places in the East”and all the world draws after him,” treading the same path which multitudes have done before.
CONCLUSION. (Verse 34.) “How will you now so vainly comfort me?” Falsehood only remains from their replies. There is some truth both in Zophar’s and in Job’s speeches. But both represent one side only of the truth. The end of the wicked man is that which Zophar depicts. Yet the temporal prosperity of the wicked, lasting to the latest hour of life, is often seen. Job cannot deny the facts of Zophar; but neither can Zophar deny the exceptions pointed out by Job. The friends are blind to these, because the admission of them would overthrow the whole battery of their attack. Job remains nearer to the truth than Zophar (Delitzsch). The godless are often greatly exalted, to fall the more deeply afterwards. “Raised up on high to be hurled down below” (Shakespeare). “Lofty towers have the heavier fall”. But it is the belief in a future judgment and a future life which can alone give patience under the anomalies and contradictions of the present. The God who is “upright, true, and all-disposing” hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, and “reward every man according to his works.” “This is certain, that God is infinitely just; whether or not we apprehend him, he is so. When we think his ways are imperfect, we should remember that the imperfection is only in our understanding. It is not the ground or the trees that turn round; but the truth is, we are giddy, and think so Because I cannot see the light, shall I say that the sun does not shine? There may be many reasons that may hinder me. Something may cover the eye, or the clouds may cover the sun, or it may be in another horizon, as in the night; but it is impossible for the sun, so long as it is a sun, not to shine It was not for Job’s sin that God afflicted him, but because he was freely pleased to do so; yet there was a reason for this pleasure which was to discover that grace of patience given him by God, to the astonishment of the world and the confutation of the devil” (South).J.
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN
Job 21:7-15
The perverse misapplication of the Divine goodness.
Job is ready with his answer. Although Zophar has correctly represented the judgments that come upon the wicked, and the evils to which wickedness not unfrequently lead, yet many cases of departure from this rule are to be observed. Job therefore proposes a counter-question,” Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? “He then depicts the prosperity which again and again marks the career of the wicked, to whom the Divine bounty is shown
(1) in prolonged life;
(2) in the power and influence they are permitted to gain;
(3) in their family prosperity;
(4) in their freedom from calamity;
(5) in their domestic security;
(6) in their abundance and joy.
This mystery Job does not instantly unravel But what is the effect of all this prosperity on the wicked? It does not humble him nor make him thankful As an uneven glass distorts the fairest image, so their impure and ill-regulated minds turn the goodness of God into an occasion of impious rejection. “Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us.” The distortions of the evil mind pervert the goodness of God into
I. AN OCCASION OF IMPIOUS DESPIAL OF THE DIVINE NAME. They refuse to know God. They shut out the knowledge of God from their hearts. With a wicked “Depart!” they resist the Holy One. They have no aspiration after a holy corn reunion, or the vision of the pure. The Lord is abhorrent to them. Their tastes are corrupt; their preferences are for evil. Truly they pervert and reverse all good things. They put darkness for light, and light for darkness. They put bitter for sweet, and sweet for hitter. The very call to adoration and praise they turn into an occasion of despisal and rejection.
II. In their perversions they make the Divine goodness AN OCCASION FOR A DESPISAL OF THE DIVINE WAYS. This is always the danger of them who have abundance and yet lack the fear of God. This is the basis of a teaching long afterwards touchingly taught concerning the rich, to whom it is so “hard” to “enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The satisfied man becomes the self-satisfied, even though indebted to another for his possessions. Then the spirit of independence becomes a spirit of revulsion against all authority that might be raised over it. So they who “spend their days in wealth” say,” We desire not the knowledge of thy ways.”
III. This same spirit ripens into AN ABSOLUTE REFUSAL TO SUBMIT TO THE DIVINE AUTHORITY. “What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?” So far is the goodness of God from leading him to repentance who is evil in spirit. Wickedness is the fruit of an ill-directed judgment, and it tends to impair the judgment more and more. It distorts all the moral sensibilities, and therefore all the moral processes. If the judgment were accurately to decide in favour of the Divine Law and its obligatory character, the perverted preferences of the mind would reject the testimony, and by a rude rebellion within would prevent a right decision from being arrived at. Even the check and restraint of the enlightened judgment becomes a signal for resistance. Its goad is kicked against; its repressions refused; its warning unheeded; its plain path, narrow and difficult to follow, is rejected, and a broad and easy way, in which the foolish heart finds its pleasure, chosen in preference. So the Divine authority is rejected and despised.
The ill effects of rejecting the Divine authority are seen:
1. In the loss of the guidance of the supreme wisdom.
2. In the inevitable injuries resulting from following a false and erroneous judgment.
3. In the demoralization of the life.
4. In the final vindication of the Divine authority.R.G.
Job 21:30
The reservation of the Divine judgment.
The expositions of these verses are various, and all true homiletics must be based on true exposition. But there is no diversity of opinion amongst expositors as to the final judgment of the wicked. Whatever, therefore, may be the aspect in which it is viewed by the argument of this chapter, it cannot be too loudly declared that judgment upon the wicked is reserved. That a final day of adjudication will come has its aspect of warning to the wrong-doer who temporarily escapes punishment, and its aspect of encouragement to the patient doer of that which is good, who is nevertheless called upon to suffer affliction. The reservation of the Divine judgment
I. A WARNING TO THE WICKED NOT TO PRESUME ON A PRESENT EXEMPTION FROM CALAMITY. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Thus is man perverse, blind, foolish. The declaration of a final, inevitable judgment is the effectual check upon foolish presumption. The wicked man is a weak man, whose own conscience makes a coward of him. The appeal to his fear and dread is the effectual check upon his carelessness.
II. In the reservation of the Divine judgment, THE OPPRESSED RIGHTEOUS ONES MAY FIND A TRUE GROUND OF CONSOLATION. Revenge is not a pious sentiment. To desire punishment upon the wicked from vindictive feelings is far from the pure mind; but he that is unjustly traduced may abide in hope that one day a Divine judgment will bring hidden things to light, and make the righteousness of the falsely accused shine as the light. The Divine judgments being always wise and good and justthe judgments of the loving Godthey will find their echo of approval in the heart of every wise and just man. The final Divine judgments will commend themselves to the utmost tenderness of the human heart; for their absolute rightness will be apparent.
III. The reservation of the Divine judgment against wickedness WILL AFFORD OPPORTUNITY FOR THE FINAL VINDICATION OF THE DIVINE WAYS. In his great condescension it may please God to vindicate his dealings with the sons of men, when each will have evidence of the righteousness of his doings. Clouds and darkness may now hide the Divine purpose and the Divine methods of procedure; but all will be clearly revealed, and hidden iniquity be exposed and oppressed goodness vindicated and the Divine ways justified. The certainty, the strictness, the equity, the unbiassed rectitude of the Divine judgment, are causes for dreading it. A lowly, reverent, obedient spirit is the true preparation for the final award. Judgment, though delayed, will not be forgotten. “God shall judge the righteous and the wicked.”R.G.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
Job 21:3
The right of reply.
I. THE RIGHT OF REPLY IS JUSTLY CLAIMED. Job has heard enough from his friends. He is impatient to answer them. Surely they should allow him to do so.
1. This right is conceded law. The worst criminal may be defended by counsel, may call witnesses in his favour, may make his own statement. In civil eases both sides are heard before judgment is pronounced.
2. This right should be allowed in social life. It is not just to condemn any one unheard. There may come to us a damaging tale concerning a person; it is our duty to suspend our judgment till he has given his explanation.
3. This right ought to be permitted in theology. It was a theological as well as a personal discussion that Job was carrying on with his friends. But in theology people are most impatient of hearing anything contrary to their own views. Yet it is not just to condemn those who differ from us until we have heard what they have to say on their side of a question.
II. THE RIGHT OF REPLY IS HELPFUL IN THE INTERESTS OF TRUTH. We are all tempted to take partial, one-sided views of things. It is only By bringing light from all quarters that we can see the rounded totality of truth. Therefore discussion helps truth. At first, indeed, it may not seem to do so, and, indeed, there seems to be a certain irony in it, for the most eager combatants are usually furthest from a just con-caption of what they are contending for. But after the discussion is over, those who look on are better able to understand the whole subject. Thus the discussion of Job and his friends throws light on the mystery of Providence. The creeds of Christendom were forged in the fires of controversy. Theology is a result of discussion. The right of reply has given breadth, depth, and definiteness to it. Truth is not helped by the persecution of error.
III. THE RIGHT OF REPLY IS A CONSOLATION TO THE MISJUDGED. Job only asks for this. When he has spoken his friends may mock on. There is some humour in his tone, or perhaps a bitter scorn. Truth is strong. Only let it shine out in its native strength, and calumny must wither before it. Any unjust accusations will then only break themselves like waves that are dashed to pieces on the crags. We can afford to be indifferent to falsehood and error if we can speak out and let the truth be fairly seen.
IV. THE RIGHT OF REPLY WILL BE GIVEN ULTIMATELY TO ALL, It will be of little use to those who are in the wrong. To be able to stand up in the searching light of eternity and reply for a bad case is no desirable privilege. Rather than attempt to reply, the self-convicted sinner will call on the mountains and hills to cover him. But those who are honestly endeavouring to make the truth manifest in face of great opposition and gross misapprehension may learn to possess their souls in patience if they will come to understand that the oppression and injustice are but temporary. Though silenced for a season, ultimately truth will speak out with a trumpet-voice.
In conclusion, let us remember that God has a right of redly to all man’s foolish sophistry, to all his shuffling excuses. All error and pretence will be pulverized annihilated when God speaks his great answer to cavillers, unbelievers, and opponents of every kind.W.F.A.
Job 21:4
The complaint that goes beyond man.
I. THE COMPLAINT THAT IS OF MORE THAN MAN‘S DOINGS. Job does not only complain of man’s injustice. That would be hard to bear; and yet a strong soul should be able to withstand it, trusting in a higher justice that will set all right at last. But the mystery, the horror, the agony, of Job’s complaint, spring from the persuasion that his troubles are to be attributed to a more than earthly origin. They are so huge and terrible that he cannot but ascribe them to a superhuman source. This fact intensifies the complaint in many respects.
1. The mystery of the supernatural. Man quails before it. The bravest hero who is not afraid of any human strength trembles at the thought of the unseen.
2. The power of the Divine. Job can resist man, but he cannot stand out against God. It is not mortal frailty, but immortal Omnipotence, that assails him. The contest is unequal.
3. The apparent injustice of the Just One. This is hardest of all. It would be possible to bear the lower injustice if assured of the impartiality and triumph of the higher justice. But when Job looks up for justice to its great central throne, even there he seems to see wrong, misapprehension, and unfair treatment. It is not that Job directly charges God with injustice; but there is in his heart an all-perplexing, baffling thought, discouraging confidence. Though we may not doubt God, it is hard to bear his hand when he seems to go against justice and love. Here is the great test of faith.
II. THE COMPLAINT THAT GOES BEYOND MAN‘S EARS. As Job complains of what is done by more than man, so he cries to a power above the human. The sublimity of the drama is seen in its relations with the unseen world. It assumes more than heroic proportions. It is concerned with God as well as man.
1. The complaining cry. Job continually lifts up his voice to God. We have to learn to look above the earth. It is foolish to complain of God, but it is natural to complain to God. If we even think hard thoughts of God, it is not necessary for us to bury them in the secrecy of our own breasts. There they will only burn as hidden fires, and consume all faith and hope. It is far better to be courageous, and confess them frankly to God himself. He can understand them, judge them fairly, and see the sorrow and perplexity from which they have sprung. And it is he who can dissipate them.
2. The merciful Heaven. God hears every cry of his children, and when faith is mixed with fear he accepts the faith and dispels the fear. Men judge their fellows harshly for their complaining utterances. God is like the patient mother who soothes her fretful child. Though the cry is wrung from the heart in an agony of dismay, so that no hope of relief is visible through the blinding veil of tears, God does not fling it back with angered dignity; he treats it with pitying mercy. If only the soul will give itself utterly up to him, even in its darkness and despair, he will hear and save.W.F.A.
Job 21:7-21
The prosperity of the wicked.
Job here gives his version of the old familiar theme. It is not as the three friends supposed. These neat maxims do not fit in with the facts of life as Job has seen them. The prosperity of the wicked is a real though a mysterious fact, one that cannot be gainsaid.
I. THE FACTS AS WITNESSED IN LIFE.
1. An established family. Job’s home is desolate. The seed of the wicked is established in their sight. They have their children about them.
2. Security. (Verse 8.) “Their houses are safe from fear.” They are not haunted by the alarms of guilt. On the contrary, they are very comfortable and self-satisfied (verse 9).
3. Freedom from chastisement. The rod of God is not upon them. The righteous man is chastised; the godless man is spared (verse 9).
4. Good fortune. Their cattle breed successfully (verse 10). The mishaps which fall to the lot of others avoid them. A certain good fortune follows them, even into those chances of life which are beyond human control.
5. Pleasure. These wicked people are not troubled by their sins. They have no puritanical scruples to sour them. They spend their days in gaiety (verses 11, 12).
6. Prosperity lasting till death. (Verse 13.) They do not have the reverse of fortune which the three moralizers assumed to be their lot. A long life of wealth and ease is followed by a quick and almost painless death. Here is unmitigated prosperity from the cradle to the grave.
II. THE DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES OF THESE FACTS. Because they are so prosperous the wicked harden themselves against God.
1. Dispensing with God. (Verse 14.) They think they can do very well without God. This world’s goods satisfy them, and of this world’s goods they have a sufficiency. They have no need to cry to God for help for they are not in trouble. They see no reason for prayer, for they have all they want without it.
2. Rejecting God. (Verse 15.) These prosperous wicked people go further than to live without God. They actually rebel against him. Being self-sufficient, they decline to admit that they are under any obligation to serve God. Thus their very prosperity increases their sin.
III. THE GREAT MYSTERY OF THESE FACTS. This is inexplicable from the standpoint of Job’s friends. If suffering is only the punishment of sin, the wicked must suffer, or there is no just Judge over all. By pointing to the plain facts of life Job is able to refute the pedantic dogmas of his critics. Theology that will not stand the test of life is worthless. But graver questions are at issue than those that merely concern the correctness of orthodox notions. Where is the justice of facts as Job sets them forth? To him all is a profound mystery. Now, it is something to be brought to this point. There is a mystery in the course of life which we cannot fathom. Then let us not attempt to judge, but confess our ignorance. Still, if there is to be an outlook towards the light, we must seek it in two directions.
1. In the prospect of a future life. There God will rectify the inequalities of this life.
2. In attaching less weight to outward circumstances. Prosperity is not the greatest good. On both sides, among the disappointed good as well as among the fortunate wicked, too much is made of external things. True prosperity is soul-prosperity. “The life is more than meat” etc.W.F.A.
Job 21:22
Teaching God.
Job has already warned his friends that their advocacy of a cruel creed was speaking wickedly for God (Job 13:7). The presumption of the foolish advocates of an effete orthodoxy now reaches a greater height, and they virtually assume to teach God. Their dogma is above Divine revelation. If the two differ, so much the worse for the revelation. Let us see how this same error may be found in other branches of life and thought.
I. IN AUTHORITATIVE ORTHODOXY. It cannot be said that the mere act of calling in the aid of authority to establish and support what we believe to be the truth implies a disposition to assume to be the teachers of God. But there is a tendency in absolute reliance on authority to move towards that absurdity which reaches its climax in the folly that Job ascribes to his friends. The tendency is to think the settled opinion of our party or section of the Church a certain and infallible truth. Thus people are urged to submit to such settled opinion without inquiry. Though God may have given teaching available to all in nature and in the Scriptures, though he may be speaking in the hearts of his children by the voice of his Spirit, all these Divine communications are set aside in favour of the one human authoritative utterance. Instead of this being subject to the test of nature, Scripture, and conscience, God’s voice in those three channels is translated and often distorted into accordance with the dogma of authority.
II. IN PRIVATE JUDGMENT. The same error may be seen in the opposite direction, in a sort of ultra-Protestant employment of the right of freedom of thought. The individual man asserts his opinion as infallible, regardless of the ideas of all other people. He poses as “Athanasius contra mundum,” without possessing the title to independence which was earned by the hero of Nicaea. The mischief is not that he is independentsurely everybody should think for himself; it is that he rejects all external aids to knowledge, and sets up his own reason, or often his own prejudice, as the standard of truth. He rejects the Pope of Rome that he may be his own pope. Even the Divine revelation in the Bible must be interpreted so as to agree with his opinions. Instead of going to the Scriptures as a humble learner seeking light, he approaches them as one who has made up his mind, and who mast now get the Bible to echo his notions. The same mistake is made by those who presume to judge nature or providence, thinking they would have done better if they had been in God’s place.
III. IN PRAYER. Is it not very common for people to pray as though they were instructing God? They inform him of what he already knows far better than they know it themselves. God invites our confidence and confession; but this is that we may put ourselves into right relations with him, not that we may tell him anything of which he would be ignorant but for our prayer. Or people go further, and offer instructions to God as to the way in which he should act. Prayer, instead of being a supplication, becomes a dictating to God. Entreaty is virtually converted into a demand. We have to learn to submit to the higher knowledge as well as the higher authority of God. Prayer needs to be more simply the trusting of ourselves to God for him to do with us just what he knows to be best.W.F.A.
Job 21:23-26
The common fate.
Job has pointed out that the wicked are not always punished in this life with external trouble; on the contrary, they often flourish to the end in unbroken prosperity (verse 7, etc.). He next proceeds to show that the end of the happy and the sorrowful is the same. The prosperous had man does not meet with a reverse of fortune at last, nor does the afflicted righteous man find an earthly reward in his later days. Both go down to death without a sign of the reversal of their condition which justice would seem to demand.
I. DEATH HAPPENS ALIKE TO ALL. As Shakespeare puts it, this may be said of all of us
“Nothing can we call our own, but death:
And that small model of the barren earth,
That serves as paste and cover to our bones.”
The “great leveller” should not only humble pride, but also teach us more bureau brotherhood. If we are brothers’ in death, should we not he brothers also in life? The deepest facts of life are common to all men. Our differences of state and rank only affect what is superficial.
II. DEATH IS NOT FELT TO BE THE SAME BY ALL. Our feelings are affected by contrasts and changes, not by our absolute condition at any moment. The candle-light that looks brilliant to the prisoner in a dungeon, is most gloomy to a man who has just come from the sunshine. Death is all loss and darkness to one who is suddenly snatched away from earthly enjoyment, but it is a haven of rest to the storm-tossed soul. The same death has very different meanings according to our spiritual condition. In sin and worldliness and heathenish ignorance, death is a going out into the darkness. To the Christian it is falling asleep in Christ.
III. THESE IS NO EARTHLY ADJUSTMENT OF LOTS. Job is quite right. It is vain to expect it. If it has not come yet, we have no reason to believe that it will come later on, even at the last. There is nothing in experience to warrant us in the hope that it will come at all. In many respects, no doubts moral causes work out visible effects on earth. But this is by no means universal, nor are the effects always adequate to the requirements of justice.
IV. THERE MUST BE A FUTURE LIFE. The story is not complete on earth. It breaks off suddenly without any kind of finish. This abruptness of the visible ending of life points to a continuance beyond the grave. Justice requires that the unfinished life should have its appropriate conclusion. Not from necessity of nature, but from moral considerations, we conclude that the broken threads must be picked up and drawn together again to make the perfect pattern.
V. THE SPIRITUAL LIFE IS INFINITELY SUPERIOR TO THE MATERIAL. It looks as though the differences of external fortune could be treated with contempt. The good have misfortune, the bad have prosperity. These are slight matters in the eyes of Providence, because real prosperity, is spiritual prosperity, and that is only possible to those who live a right life.W.F.A.
Job 21:34
Vain comfort.
The three bungling comforters are wasting their efforts, because they are not speaking the truth. Their misapprehension and misrepresentation vitiate all their good intentions.
I. WE MUST UNDERSTAND THOSE WHOM WE WOULD HELP.
1. By mixing with them. Job’s friends took the first step. They travelled from their remote homes across the desert and came to see him. We can only help the miserable if we first go among them and see them with our own eyes. Much philanthropy fails by reason of distance and separation. We cannot know people till we are with them. Christ came down from heaven and lived among men.
2. By freedom from prejudice. Job’s friends came with fixed notions. They only looked at Job through their coloured spectacles. We can never understand people till we throw aside all our preconceived notions about them and look at them as they are.
3. By sympathy. This must be insisted on over and over again. The lack of it was the chief cause of the failure of Job’s friends. The presence of it is the first essential for understanding people.
II. TRUTH IS A PRIMARY CONDITION OF CONSOLATION.
1. In regard to the sufferer. It is useless to ignore his sufferings, or to try to reason him into the belief that they do not exist. The attempt to help will be spoilt if we argue that what he knows to be undeserved is really his due. Any view that does not regard him as he is spoils all efforts to console.
2. In regard to the remedy. It is worse than useless to offer wrong remedies. The trite commonplaces of consolation are only irritants. Some of them are known to be false in fact. Others have not the ring of sincerity about them when repeated by the comforting friend. However true they have been once, they have ceased to bear any meaning that people believe in.
III. SPIRITUAL CONSOLATION IS CONDITIONED BY SPIRITUAL TRUTH.
1. In thought. We cannot console others with dogmas that we do not believe in ourselves. If we have no faith in Christ we cannot use the Name of Christ to heal the wounds of others. Unless we look forward to a future life it is vain for us to talk about the “many mansions” when we are trying to console others. There is a foolish notion that we should talk up to the maximum of orthodoxy, even though we do not live and think up to it. But this notion is only an excuse for cant, and nothing is more vexing to the sufferer than to be treated with cant. Let us say only what we believe.
2. In fact. Delusions cannot afford permanent consolations, They may soothe pain and alarm for the moment; but they cannot endure, and when the mistake of them is discovered the result will be a deeper despair than ever. If, however, we could succeed in lulling all distress on earth by means of a false hope, the consolation itself would be a most terrible calamity. The soul needs truth more than comfort. It is better to hear the painful truth now than at the great judgment. But there is another truth, one which gives real consolationthe truth of the gospel of Christ.W.F.A.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
CHAP. XXI.
Job observes, that the wicked sometimes live happily, and sometimes their destruction is manifest, yet, though some lead a prosperous, and others an afflicted life, all are cut off alike by death: whence it clearly follows, that the wicked are reserved to a day of wrath.
Before Christ 1645.
Job 21:1. But Job answered and said It has been urged, and thought strange, that Job should never resume the argument of a resurrection, which was so full of piety and conviction; but, when resuming the dispute with his friends, should stick to the argument that he first set out with. Now supposing it to be true, that Job never mentions the resurrection in his following speeches, nor any thing alluding to it, (which, whether it be true or not, we shall see in the course of our observations,) yet a very sufficient reason may be assigned for it: for, if one such appeal as this, made in the most solemn manner, would not convince them of his integrity, I suppose he had reason to think that it would be much the same if he had repeated it a second and a third time; and therefore he had no other resource left, than to follow the argument with which he had begun; i.e. to combat the false principle upon which they were so forward to condemn him: and this he does effectually throughout the present chapter, by shewing, that many wicked men live long and prosperous, and at last die in peace, and are buried with great pomp; which shews that this life is not the proper state of retribution, but that men shall be judged and recompensed hereafter. See Peters.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
B.JOB: That which experience teaches concerning the prosperity of the ungodly during their life on earth argues not against but for his innocence:
Job 21
1. Introductory appeal to the friends:
Job 21:1-6
1But Job answered and said:
2Hear diligently my speech,
and let this be your consolations.
3Suffer me that I may speak;
and after that I have spoken, mock on.
4As for me, is my complaint to man?
and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?
5Mark me, and be astonished,
and lay your hand upon your mouth.
6Even when I remember I am afraid,
and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.
2. Along with the fact of the prosperity of the wicked, taught by experience (Job 21:7-16), stands the other fact of earthly calamity befalling the pious and the righteous:
Job 21:7-26
7Wherefore do the wicked live,
become old, yea, are mighty in power?
8Their seed is established in their sight with them,
and their offspring before their eyes.
9Their houses are safe from fear,
neither is the rod of God upon them.
10Their bull gendereth and faileth not;
their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.
11They send forth their little ones like a flock,
and their children dance.
12They take the timbrel and harp,
and rejoice at the sound of the organ.
13They spend their days in wealth,
and in a moment go down to the grave.
14Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us,
for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.
15What is the Almighty that we should serve Him?
and what profit should we have, if we pray unto Him?
16Lo, their good is not in their hand!
the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17How oft is the candle of the wicked put out?
and how oft cometh their destruction upon them?
God distributeth sorrows in His anger.
18They are as stubble before the wind,
and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
19God layeth up His iniquity for His children:
He rewardeth him, and he shall know it.
20His eyes shall see his destruction,
and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21For what pleasure hath he in his house after him,
when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?
22Shall any teach God knowledge?
seeing He judgeth those that are high.
23One dieth in his full strength,
being wholly at ease, and quiet.
24His breasts are full of milk,
and his bones are moistened with marrow.
25And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul,
and never eateth with pleasure.
26They shall lie down alike in the dust.
and the worms shall cover them.
3. Rebuke of the friends because they set forth only one side of that experience, and use it to his prejudice
Job 21:27-34
27Behold, I know your thoughts,
and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.
28For ye say, Where is the house of the prince?
and where are the dwelling-places of the wicked?
29Have ye not asked them that go by the way?
and do ye not know their tokens?
30that the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction?
they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.
31Who shall declare his way to his face?
and who shall repay him what he hath done?
32Yet shall he be brought to the grave,
and shall remain in the tomb.
33The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him,
and every man shall draw after him,
as there are innumerable before him.
34How then comfort ye me in vain,
seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The obstinacy of the friends, who show neither the desire nor the inclination to solve the mystery of Jobs sufferings in a friendly spirit, and in such a way as would not wound his feelings, drives Job to come out in theoretic opposition to the narrow and external interpretation of the doctrine of retribution advocated by them, and to change his reply from the essentially personal character which it had previously borne into a strict criticism of their doctrine. Having first calmly but bitterly challenged their attention to that which he had to communicate to them (Job 21:2-6), he urges against them the mysterious fact that often the ungodly revel in superfluity of prosperity to the end of their life, while on the contrary the pious are often throughout their earthly life pursued by misfortune (Job 21:7-26). In view of a distribution of prosperity and adversity so unequal, and so much at variance with the moral desert of men, it was decidedly unjust, nay malicious and false on the part of the friends to undertake to brand him as a wicked man on account of his misfortune (Job 21:27-34). The whole discussion which brilliantly demonstrates Jobs superiority over the friends in respect to the stand-point of ethical perception and experience, and which serves to introduce the last turn which the colloquy takes, and which is decisive of his complete victory, is divided into five strophes, of five verses each, the first strophe covering the exordium (Job 21:2-6), the remaining four constituting the Second Division [the former two of these strophes again being occupied with the fact, the latter two with the argument showing the fact to be irreconcilable with their theory of retribution; Dillm.]; followed by two strophes of four verses each [rebuking the one-sidedness of the friends] constituting the Third Division (Job 21:27-34.)
2. First Division (and strophe): Exordium: Job 21:2-6. Job announces that he is about to speak of a mysterious and indeed an astounding phenomenon, which demands the entire attention of the friends.
Job 21:2. Hear, I pray, hear my speech! and let this be instead of your consolationsor: in order that this may supply the place of your consolations, may prove to me a comfort instead of them, seeing that they so poorly accomplish their purpose (comp. Job 15:11; Job 16:2). [A fine touch of irony: attentive silence would be a much more real comfort than all their ineffectual talk!]
Job 21:3. Suffer me (, with Kamets before the tone, comp. Jon 1:12; 1Ki 20:33; Gesenius 60 [ 59] Rem. 1)and then will I speak (I, , in contrast with the you of the Imper., although without a particularly strong accent); and after that I have spoken, thou mayest mock (, concessive, Ewald 136, e). The demand for a patient hearing of his rebuke, which reminds us somewhat of the saying of ThemistoclesStrike, but hear me! (Plutarch, Themist. c. 11), is specifically addressed in the second half to Zophar, whose last discourse must have grieved him particularly, and who in fact after the rejoinder which Job now makes had nothing more to say, and could only leave the mocking assaults on Job to be resumed by his older companions. [So in Job 16:3 Job had singled out Eliphaz in his reply, and again in Job 26:2-4, he singles out Bildad].
Job 21:4. Does my complaint go forth from me in regard to man?i.e. as for me ( emphatically prefixed, and then resumed again in , Gesen. 145 [ 142], 2), is my complaint directed against men? is my complaint ( as in Job 7:13; Job 9:27; Job 10:1), concerning men, or is it not rather concerning something that has a superhuman cause, something that is decreed by God? That in this last thought lies the tacit antithesis to is evident from the second member: or why should I not be impatient? lit. why should my spirit not become short, comp. Job 6:11; Mic 2:7; Zec 11:8; Pro 14:29. That which follows gives us to understand more distinctly that it was something quite extraordinary, superhuman, under the burden of which Job groans, and concerning which he has to complain. [The rendering of the last clause found in E. V. Lee, Wemyss, etc.: And if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled? is both less natural, in view of the antecedent probability that is cor-related to the interrogative, less simple, and less satisfactory in the meaning which it yields. E.].
Job 21:5. Turn ye to me and be astonished, and lay the hand on the mouth,viz.: as being dumb with astonishment, comp. Job 29:9; Job 40:4 Imper. cons. Hiph. from (comp. Job 17:8; Job 18:20) [with Pattach for Tsere in pause], obstupescite. According to the reading (Imper. Hoph. of the same verb) [as some regard it even with the punctuation = hoshammu] the meaning is not essentially different.
Job 21:6. Verily if I think on it I am confounded ( apodosis; comp. Job 7:14) and my flesh seizes on horror. In Heb. is subject; comp. the similar phraseology in Job 18:20. , from Job 9:6, means convulsive quaking, terror, as in the New Testament (Mar 14:33). It is to be noted how by these strong expressions the friends are prepared to hear something grave, fearful, astounding, to wit a proposition, founded on experience, which seems to call in question the divine justice, and to the affirmation of which Job accordingly proceeds hesitatingly, and with visible reluctance.
3. Second Division: First Half: The testimony of experience to the fact that the wicked are often, and indeed ordinarily prosperous: Job 21:7-16.
Second Strophe: Job 21:7-11. Why do the wicked live oninstead of dying early, as Zophar had maintained, Job 20:5. The same question is propounded by Jeremiah, Job 12:1 seq.; comp. Psalms 73. Mal 3:13 seq. Become old, yea, strong in power, or: are become old (lit. advanced in years, comp. ) and mighty in possessions. In regard to (with accus. of specification) comp. the equivalent phrase , Psa 73:12; and in regard to see above Job 15:29; Job 20:15; Job 20:18.
Job 21:8. Their posterity is established here notstanding in readiness, as in Job 12:5; Job 15:23, but enduring, firmly established, as in (Psa 93:2) before them round about them, surrounding them in the closest proximity; this is the meaning of , not: like themselves (Rosenm., Umbreit, Sohlottm., Vaih., [Frst, Noyes] etc.), in behalf of which latter signification to be sure Job 9:26 might be cited; but the parallel expressionbefore their eyesin the second member, favors rather the former sense. [And their offspring before their eyes. , as in Job 5:25is exactly expressed by our issue, though perhaps the reduplication rather implies issues issue. Carey]. Job, having been himself so ruthlessly stripped of his children, makes prominent above all else this aspect of the external prosperity of the wicked, that namely which is exhibited in a flourishing posterity, a fine trait of profound psychological truth! [To be noted moreover is the pathetic repetition of the thought in both members of the verse, and its no less pathetic resumption in Job 21:11. This picture of a complete and peaceful household, with its circle of joyous youth fascinates the bereaved fathers heart exceedingly, and he dwells on it with yearning fondness!]
Job 21:9. Their houses [are] peace (, the same as ; comp. Job 5:24 [where see rem. in favor of the more literal and forcible rendering obtained by not assuming the preposition at all; E.] Isa 41:3) without fear. , like Job 19:26; (comp. Job 11:15; Isa 22:3) and the rod of Eloah cometh not upon them, i. e. to punish them; comp. in Job 9:34; Job 37:13 [How different from the fate of his own house! No such Terror, no such Scourge as that which had made his a ruin!E.].
Job 21:10. From the state of the household the description turns to that of the cattle, with the peculiarity that here exceptionally the sing takes the place of the plur., which is used almost throughout to designate the wicked (so again below Job 21:19, and in like manner Job 24:5; Job 24:16 seq.). His bull gendereth and faileth not (Zckler lit.his bull covereth and impregnates]. , in itself of common gender, is here indicated as a masc. both by the contrast with in b, and by its predic. , to cover, to gender (comp. produce fruit, Jos 5:11-12). The additional strengthening clause , neque efficit ut ejiciat (semen) indicates that the impregnation is successful. The second member is entirely parallel.His cow calveth easily (, synon. with ,, Isa 34:15; Isa 66:7) and miscarries not, neque abortum patitur, comp. Gen 31:38; Exo 23:26.
Job 21:11. Once more Job recurs to the fairest instance of earthly prosperity, the possession of a flourishing troop of children. On comp. above on Job 19:18 [where however the word suggests, as it does not necessarily here, a bad quality in the children themselves; Bernards rendering they send forth their wicked little children, introduces an incongruous element into the picture, which Job contemplates here as a pleasing and attractive one.E.] As to , to send forth, to let loose, see Isa 32:20.
Third Strophe: Job 21:12-16. They (the wicked) sing loud with the playing of timbrel and harp; hence with joyous festivity, as in Isa 5:12 (scil. ) lit. they raise their voice, i. e., in loud jubilations or songs of joy; comp. Isa 42:11 , used as in Psa 49:5 [4] of the musical accompaniment; hence, with, to the timbrel and harp. On the contrary the reading preferred by the Masora and several Rabbis, would signify at, during the playing of the timbrel, etc. ( of the proximate specification of time, as in [about the time], , etc.). Concerning , instead of which several MSS. and Eds have in Job 30:31, and in Psa 150:4, comp. Delitzsch on Gen 4:21; Winer, Realwrterb. II., 123 seq. [The three musical instruments here mentioned are certainly the most ancient, and are naturally the most simple, and indeed may be regarded as the originals of every species of musical instrument that has since been invented, all which may be reduced to three kindsstring instruments, wind instruments, and instruments of percussion; and the harp, the , pipe, and the , tabor, may be considered as the first representatives of each of these species respectively. Carey, see illustrations in Carey, p. 453 seq., and Smith Bib. Dict. under Harp, Timbrel, and Organ].
Job 21:13. They spend in prosperity their days.So according to the Kri (lit. they complete, finish, comp. Job 36:11; Psa 90:9), while the Kthibh would be, according to Isa 65:22 = they use up, wear out (usu conterunt) [which is more expressive than the Kri, signifying not only that they bring their life to an end, but that they use it up, get out of it all the enjoyment that is in it.E.]. In either case the affirmation is made in direct contradiction to the opposite descriptions of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, as e. g., Job 15:32; Job 18:14; Job 20:11.And in a moment ( like our in a trice [Germ.: im Nu], hence quickly, easily, without a struggle) they sink down to Sheol,they thus enjoy a quick death, free from suffering, having fully enjoyed their life even to the end. The connection does not allow us to understand it of an evil sudden death, but rather requires the idea of a euthanasy. might in itself be the Imperf. Niph. of : they are frightened down [others, e. g., Bernard; they are crushed, or hurled down], to which however the Accus. loci is ill suited. More correctly the form is derived from , the Imperf. of which is written either , or . It may be read here either (for so Ewald, Hirzel), or with reduplication of the in pause [Dageshforte emphatic, Green, 24, c] after the Masora; comp. Gesen. Lehrgeb., p. 45; Ewald, 93, d.
Job 21:14 seq. And yet they say unto God, Depart from us,etc., etc., i. e., notwithstanding their prosperity [the fut. consec. does not here denote temporally that which follows upon and from something else, but generally that which is inwardly connected with something else, and even with that which is contradictory, and still occurring at the same time; Del.], which should constrain them to gratitude towards God, they will know nothing about Him, yea, they account the service of God and prayer to Him as useless. , precibus adire; comp. Rth 1:16; Jer 7:16; Jer 27:18.
Job 21:16. After the frivolous words of the ungodly Job here resumes his own description, and concludes the section in which he states his proposition.Behold, not in their hand stands their prosperity.This is not an objection assumed by Job to be made by his opponents, as below in Job 21:19 (Schnurrer, Schlottm., Kamph.) [Noyes, Elzas], but an expression of Jobs own conviction, who intends herewith to set forth that not they, but God Himself is in some mysterious way the cause of their prosperity, by which he would indicate the difficulty of the problem, with which he is here occupied in general. The sentence is not an expression of Jobs disapprobation of the view of life prevalent among the wicked (Ewald) [Carey, Wordsworth], for such an expression of disapprobation first appears in b, and the position of the words in a shows clearly that the main emphasis lies on . The interrogative rendering of the clause, Behold! is not their prosperity in their hand? (Rashi, Hirzel, Heiligst., Welte, Hahn [Renan]) is contradicted by the use of , not at the beginning. [Moreover the connection with b according to such a rendering is strained.E.]The counsel of the wicked be far from me!The same formula of detestation recurs in the following discourse of Eliphaz, Job 22:18 is used in a precative or optative sense (Ewald, 223, b); it is thus essentially equivalent to the formula elsewhere in use . [It is the perf. of certainty, which expresses that which is wished as a fact, but with an emotional exclamative accent. Del.]. In respect to , here in the sense of fundamental maxim, disposition, view of life, comp. Job 5:13; Job 10:3; Job 18:7. Job thus persists decidedly here again in his refusal in any way to renounce God; comp. Job 1:11; Job 2:5. [This strong repudiation by Job of the practical atheism of the wicked is of especial importance to the moral problem of the book.E.].
4. Second Division: Second Half. Antithetic demonstration of the preceding proposition derived from experience, with reference to the opposite affirmations of the friends, and their possible reproaches.
Fourth Strophe: Job 21:17-21. [The views of the friends in regard to retribution denied both as to the fact and the principle].
Job 21:17 involves a reference to certain expressions which Bildad had used in Job 18 in justification of his doctrine, particularly to his description of the extinguishing of the light of the wicked (Job 18:5), and of the sudden destruction (prop pressure of suffering Del.) of the same (Job 18:12), but only to call in question the correct application of these figures.How oft does the lamp of the wicked go out, and their destruction break upon them?In Jobs mind this how oft (, comp. Psa 78:40) is naturally equivalent to how rarely; for he decidedly doubts the general correctness of those affirmations of Bildad Moreover the influence of this interrogative how oft extends to the third member of the verse [which accordingly is not to be rendered affirmatively, as in E. V., God distributed sorrows in His angera rendering which changes the meaning of the entire context, making it an assertion by Job that God does punish the wicked as the friends had taughtwhereas on the contrary Job is asking how often was this the case?E.]: (how often) does He distribute sorrows in His anger? The subject is God (comp. Job 20:23). The particular affirmation of his opponents, to which Job here alludes, is the close of Zophars last speech (Job 20:29), the of which is distinctly enough echoed here in the . The retrospective reference to this passage would be still more definite if we were to derive from , measuring-line (so the Targ., Ewald, Hirz., Dillmann [Schlott., Renan, Frst]), and explain it to mean lots, heritages (comp. Psa 16:6). It is more natural, nevertheless, (with the LXX. Vulg., Gesenius, Rosenm. [E. V., Good, Lee, Noyes, Ber., Rod., Elz.], etc., to take the word in its ordinary sense = sorrows, calamities (plur. of ). [The plur. does not occur in that tropical sense (of lots), and if it were so intended here, , or might at least be expected. Del.]. Also the translation snares, gins, (Stickel, Hahn, Delitzsch) yields a meaning good in itself, and would have, moreover, the special recommendation of furnishing a retrospective reference to Job 8:10-12, the same passage of Bildads discourse to which a and b look. The expressionto distribute snaresis however altogether too harsh, and the assumption that such an unusual expression is occasioned by the collateral reference to Job 18:10 seq., and to Job 20:29, is altogether too artificial.
Job 21:18 (over which the influence of continues to extend): How often are they as Straw (chopped straw) [a figure occurring only here: the figure of chaff is more frequent. Del.] before the wind, and as chaff (Psa 1:4; Isa 17:13) which the whirlwind snatches away? An allusion to Zophars description, Job 20:8-9, if not as regards the expressions, still as regards the sense.
Job 21:19. God lays up his calamity for his (the wicked mans) children! ( from in the signification calamity; comp. Job 11:11; Job 15:35.) [There is possibly a play on the word , which may be rendered either his wealth, or his calamity.His treasure is the coming wrath! also means iniquity, and some (E. V., Del., etc.) render it so here. Here, however, the evil which is the punishment of evil best suits the context.E.] This is an objection of the opponents, which links itself to similar affirmations by Eliphaz (Job 5:4) and Zophar (Job 20:10), and which Job himself here formulates, in order forthwith to refute it: (Rather) let Him recompense it to him (or, in view of the emphasis belonging to the word bearing the principal tone: to him let Him repay it) that he may feel it ( here sentire, to feel, to be sensible of, as in Isa 9:8; Hos 9:7; Eze 25:14). In a manner quite similar the prophets Jeremiah (Job 31:29 seq) and Ezekiel (Job 18) controvert the similar doctrine of the vicarious expiation of the guilt of parents by their posterity. [Jobs view is that retribution can be such only when it falls on the offender himself. It may affect othersalthough Job does not say that himselfit must reach him. E.]
Job 21:20 continues the refutation of that false theory of substitution or satisfaction, and illustrates at the same time how the evil doer is to or feel the divine punishment. destruction, (lit. a thrust, blow, plaga), only here in the Old Testament; synonymous with the Arabic caid. The figure of drinking the divine wrath has immediate reference to Zophars description, Job 20:23. [The emphasis lies on the signs of the person in and May his own eyes see his ruin; may he himself have to drink of the divine wrath. Del.]
Job 21:21 gives a reason for that which he has just said against that perverted theory by calling attention to the stolid insensibility of the evil-doer, as a consummate egoist, in respect to the interests of his posterity. For what careth he for his house after him: lit. for what is his concern, his interest ( here, as in Job 22:3; comp. Isa 58:3) in his house after him (i.e., after his death)? is in close union with (comp. e. g.Gen 17:19) not with . If the number of his months is apportioned to him; or while [or when] the number, etc. The whole of this circumstantial clause, which is a partial echo of Job 15:20 (comp. Job 14:5), expresses the thought, that the selfish pleasure-seeking evil-doer is satisfied if only his appointed term of life remains to him unabridged. This general meaning may be maintained whether, in accordance with Pro 30:27, we explain to mean: to allot, to appoint, thus rendering it as a synonym of (Job 40:30 [Job 41:6]; so Targ., Gesen., Ewald, Dillm.); or, which is less probable, we take it as a denominative from , arrow, in the sense of casting lots, disposing of by lot [from the custom of shaking up arrows for lotsa doubtful sense for the Hebrew] (so Cocceius, Rosenm., Umbreit, Hirzel, etc.); or whether, finally, we assign to the word the meaning of cutting off, completing (Gesenius in Thes., Stickel, Delitzsch [E. V. Good, Ber., Noy., Schlott., Con., Rod., Ren., Frst] etc.)to which latter interpretation, however, the expressionthe number of his monthsis not so well suited, for a number is not properly cut off. [In any case the addition of E. V., when the number of his months is cut off in the midst, is erroneous; for even if we assign to the verb the significationcut offthe meaning of the clause is cutting off at the end, not in the midst. What is the evil-doers concern in his house, when he himself is no more? The other meaning given above howeverto apportiongives a more vivid representation of his brutal selfishness, his unconcern even for his own flesh and blood, provided he himself have his full share of life and its enjoyments. What careth he for his house after him, if the full number of his own months be meted out to him? E.] The number of is determined by the subordinate [but nearest] term of the subject, by virtue of an attraction similar to that in Job 15:20 (Gesen. 148 [ 145], 1) [Green, 277].
Fifth Strophe: Job 21:22-26 : [The theory of the friends involves a presumptuous dictation to God of what He should do, seeing that His present dealings with men, and their participation of the common destiny of the grave, furnish no indication of moral character].
Job 21:22. Shall one teach God knowledge. as containing the principal notion is put emphatically first. In respect to the dative construction of verbs of teaching (as in Greek ) comp. Ewald, 283, c.: Seeing He judgeth those that are in heaven: lit: and He nevertheless judges (, circumstantial clause) the high [Carey: dignities. The LXX read , ]. The high are simply the heavenly spirits, the angels as inhabiting the heights of heaven (, comp. Job 16:19; Job 25:2; Job 31:2), not the celestial heights themselves, as Gesenius explains, with a reference to Psa 78:69, a reference, however, which is probably unsuitable. Still less does it mean the proud (Hahn, Olshausen), a signification which by itself, and without qualification never has. This proposition, that God exercises judicial power over the exalted spirits of heaven, Job advances here all the more readily, that the friends had already appealed twice in similar words to the same fact of the absolute holiness and justice of God (Job 4:18; Job 15:15). They had indeed done this with the intent of supporting their narrow-minded doctrine of retribution, while on the contrary Job, by the same proposition would put their short-sighted theory to the rout, and direct attention to the unfathomable depth and secresy of Gods counsels, and of the principles of His government.
Job 21:23-26 demonstrate this unfathomableness and incomprehensibleness of the divine judgments (Rom 11:33) by two examples, which are contrasted each with the other (Job 21:23, Job 21:25 : , the onethe other), of one man dying in the fulness of his prosperity, of another who is continually unfortunate, but whom the like death unites with the former, notwithstanding that their moral desert during their life was altogether different, or directly opposite in character. The assumption of many ancient and some modern commentators, as e. g. Hahn, that by the prosperous man described in Job 21:23 seq. a wicked man, and by the unfortunate man described in Job 21:25 a pious man is intended, without qualification, is arbitrary, and hardly corresponds with exactness to the poets idea. The tendency of the parallel presented is rather in accordance with Job 21:22, to show, in proof of the mysteriousness of the divine dealings and judgment, that what happens outwardly to men in this life is not necessarily determined by their moral conduct, but that this latter might be, and often enough is directly at variance with the external prosperity.
Job 21:23. The one dies in the fulness of his prosperity; lit. in bodily prosperity, in ipsa sua integritate. In respect to self [essence, the very thing] comp. Gesen. 124 [ 122], 2, Rem. 3; and in respect to , integrity in the physical sense, bodily, in general external well being, comp. the word generally used elsewhere in this sense, Psa 38:4 [3], 8 [7], and also Pro 1:12 in the second member, which is not found elsewhere is an alternate form of , unconcerned, enlarged by the introduction of a liquid [comp. from , stuare, and , , from ; Del.]. According to Rdiger, Olsh., it is possibly just an error in writing for , the form given above in Job 12:5. stands here for the more frequent defective form , Job 20:20; comp. Jer 49:31.
Job 21:24. His troughs are full of milk. Most moderns, following the lead of the Talmudic olive-trough, as well as the authority of the Targ. and many Rabbis, take correctly in the sense of vessels, troughs [milk-pails, Luther, Wolfsohn, Elzas; bottles, Lee; skins, Carey (i. e. undressed skins, the abundance of milk making it necessary to use these)], to the rejection of interpretations which are in part singularly at variance, such as cattle-pastures (Aben-Ezra, Schult. [Renan, Weymss] etc., veins (Frst), jugular veins (Saad.), sides (Pesh.) [Noyes, Con.], bowels (LXX., Vulg. [breasts, Targ., E. V.; loins, Rodwell; sleek skin, Good. The assumption that must be a part of the body is without satisfactory ground (comp. against it e. g. Job 20:17, and for it Job 20:11); and Schlottm. very correctly observes that in the contrast in connection with the representation of the well-watered marrow one expects a reference to a rich, nutritious drink. Delitzsch]. The meaning of this member of the verse accordingly reminds us in general of Job 20:17, which description of Zophars Job here purposely recalls, in like manner as in the marrow of the bones, in b he recalls Job 21:11 of the same discourse. [And the marrow of his bones is well-watered]. In respect to well-watered, an agricultural or horticultural metaphor, comp. Isa 58:11.
Job 21:25. The other dies with a bitter soul (comp. Job 3:20; Job 7:11; Job 10:1), and has not enjoyed good; lit. and has not eaten of the good (or prosperity, as in Job 9:25) with partitive, as in Psa 141:4; comp. above Job 7:13 [ perhaps like conveying the idea of enjoyment, as Schlottmann suggests. Not, however, of full enjoyment, but rather tasting of it.Not as in E. V. and never eateth with pleasure; against which lies (1) The customary usage of partitive after verbs of eating and drinking; (2) The objective meaning of , which cannot be taken of subjective pleasure.E].
Job 21:26. Together [or: beside one another] they lie down in the dust (of the grave), and worms cover them., decay, worms, as above in Job 17:14. Comp. our proverbial expressions in regard to the equality of the grave, the impartiality of death, etc.
5. Third Division: A rebuke of the friends on account of their one-sided judgment touching the external prosperity of men, a judgment which was only unfavorable as regards Job: Job 21:27-34.
Sixth Strophe: Job 21:27-30.Behold I know your thoughts [, counsels, plans], and the plots (, sensu malo, as in Pro 12:2; Pro 14:17; Pro 24:8) [is the name he gives to the delicately developed reasoning with which they attack him: Delitzsch; the schemes which they invent to wound him, the painful dilemmas into which they would entrap him: E.] with which ye do violence to me: with the intent namely of presenting me at any cost as a sinner. [By the construction of with the notion of falling upon and over-powering is indicated. Schlottm.].
Job 21:28, hypothetical antecedent with , is related to Job 21:29 as its consequent, precisely like Job 19:28 to Job 21:29. [So Ewald. Del., Dillm. But such a construction seems neither natural nor forcible. The causal rendering: For ye say, etc., is simpler and stronger. It was from just such taunts as the following that Job knew their spirit, and detected their insidious plots against his reputation and his peace. The causal rendering is adopted by E. V. Good, Wem., Noy., Words., Schlott., Con., Rod., Carey, Elzas, etc. E. ]. If, [or, when] ye say: Where is the house of the tyrant? (, sensu malo, as in Isa 13:2, not in the neutral sense, as above in Job 12:21) [a title of honor, similar in use to our nobleman, generosus, for which, in its personal application to Job here, tyrant seems too strong a rendering. Neither here, nor in Is. l.c., is such a rendering called for. In this member the prominent idea is station, rank: the moral character of the is indicated in the following member. E.], and where the tent inhabited by the wicked? lit., the tent of the habitations of the wicked, by which possibly a spacious palatial tent is intended, with several large compartments within it (such as the tents of the Bedouin sheikhs are to this day), which can be recognized from afar by their size. [ is not an externally, but internally multiplying plur.; perhaps the poet by intends a palace in the city, and by a tent among the wandering tribes, rendered prominent by its spaciousness, and the splendor of the establishment Del.]. It is to be noted moreover how distinct an allusion there is in the question to the repeated descriptions of the destruction of the tent of the wicked by Eliphaz and Bildad (Job 15:34; Job 18:15; Job 18:21).
Job 21:29. Have ye not inquired then [ for ; see Green, 119, 2] of those who travel: lit. the wanderers, passers by, of the way; comp. Lam 1:12;. Psa 80:13, etc. [People who have travelled much, and therefore are well acquainted with the stories of human destinies. Del.]. Andtheir tokens ye will at least not fail to know;i. e. that which they nave to tell of examples of prosperous evil-doers and righteous ones in adversity (they, who have travelled much, who know about other lands and nations!) that you surely will not disregard, controvert, or reject? , Piel of , expresses here, as in Deu 32:27 : 1Sa 23:7; Jer 19:4, the negative sense of ignoring, denying, while occasionally, e. g. in Elihus use of it, Job 34:19, it signifies also to acknowledge (a meaning elsewhere found in the Hiphil). [So here E. V. Lee, Conant, Ewald, Schlott.according to which rendering the second member is a continuation of the question begun in the first]. , tokens, means here things worthy of note, remarkable incidents, memorabilia, anecdotes of travel.
Job 21:30 gives in brief compass the substance and contents of these lessons of travel: That in the day of destruction (, as in Job 21:17) the wicked is spared (i. e. is held back from ruin; as in Job 16:6; Job 33:18), in the day of overflowing wrath they are led away:i. e. beyond the reach of the devastating effect of these outbursts of divine wrath ( as in Job 40:11), so that these can do them no harm. The Hoph. , which is used below in Job 21:32 of being escorted in honor to the grave, expresses here accordingly, in like manner as in Isa 55:12, being led away with a protecting escort (as, for example, Lot was conducted out of Sodom). [Noyes gives to the verb here the same application as in Job 21:32, and explains: He is borne to his grave in the day of wrath; i. e. he dies a natural, peaceful death]. The only unusual feature of this construction, which in any case is much to be preferred as a whole to that of Ewald [Rodwell] on the day when the overflowings of wrath come on is the , instead of which we might rather look for , in the day. It is nevertheless unadvisable, in view of the context, to translate the second memberas e. g. with Dillman [E. V., Con., Carey]they are brought on to the day of wrath; for such a proposition could not possibly, be attributed to the travellers, but at most to the friends; it would thus of necessity follow a very abruptly [and unnaturally]; neither would any essential relief be obtained from a transposition of Job 21:30 and Job 21:29 as suggested by Delitzsch. [Zckler overlooks, however, the explanation of those (such as Scott, Carey, Conant, Wordsworth, Barnes, etc.) who regard the whole of this verse as expressing, through the travellers of Job 21:29, Jobs own conviction that the wicked are reserved for future retribution, that they are led forth to a day of wrath hereafter; that accordingly present exemption from the penalty of sin proves nothing as to a mans real character. Such an explanation, however, is to be rejected for the following reasons: (1) It is at variance with the drift of the books argument. (2) It is inconceivable, if Job held so clearly and firmly to the doctrine of future retribution, as this view of the passage before us would imply, that he did not make more use of it in his discussions. (3) It is inconsistent with the connection (a) Why should he produce this view here as a foreign importation? Why should he rest it on experience? Observe that the propositionthe wicked are spared in times of calamity is a deduction from experience, for the truth of which Job might well appeal to the testimony of those who by much observation and experience could testify to the fact. But surely the doctrine of a future retribution must rest on other authoritythe witness of conscience, the testimony of a divine revelation, the consensus of the wise and holy (not merely of the ) in all ages and lands. (b) It is inconceivable that Job having carried his hearers forward to the retribution of the Hereafter as the solution of the mystery of the present should proceed to speak (as he does in the verses immediately following) of the present prosperity and pomp of the wicked, and of the continuance of the same to and upon the grave, in the same strain as before. Especially does the conclusion reached in Job 21:33 seem strange and unsuitable, if we suppose the sublime truth of a full retribution to be declared in Job 21:30E.]
Seventh Strophe: Job 21:31-34. Who to His face will declare His way? and hath He done aughtwho will requite it to Him? This inquiry evidently proceeds not from the travellers, whose utterance has already come to an end in Job 21:30, but from Job himself. Moreover it concerns not the sinner, but God, the unsearchably wise and mighty disposer of mens destinies, whose name is not mentioned from reverential awe. So correctly Aben-Ezra, Ewald, Hirzel, Heiligst., Dillm. Regarded as the continuation of the discourse of the travellers (as it is taken by the majority of commentators) [so Del., Schlott., Renan, Scott, Good, Lee, Bernard, Rod., Words., Elzas, Merx], the verse must naturally be referred to the wicked man, characterizing his unscrupulous arbitrary conduct, which no one ventures to hinder or punish. But for this view the expression , who will requite it to him? would be much too strong. Moreover a sentiment of such a reflective cast would be strange in the mouth of the travellers from whom we should expect directly only a statement of fact ( Job 21:29). [Referred to God the meaning would be: Who will challenge the divine conduct? He renders no account of His actions. His reasons are inscrutable; and however much His dealings with men seem to contradict our notions of justice, our only recourse is silence and submission. But against this interpretation it may be urged: (1) It requires too many abrupt changes of subject. Thus we should have for subject in Job 21:30 the wicked man, in Job 21:31 God, in Job 21:32 the wicked again, and this while in Job 21:31 and Job 21:32 the subject is indicated only by personal pronouns. It is highly improbable that in Job 21:31 b, and in Job 21:32 a are used of different subjects. (2) The expressions are unsuitable to the thought attributed to them, especially the clause , which, as Delitzsch argues, used of man in relation to God, has no suitable meaning. On the other hand the application to the wicked gives a smooth connection, at the same time that the expressions are entirely appropriate to describe his career of lawless impunity. The of Job 21:32 moreover acquires by this application its proper emphasis (see on the verse). To the objection made abovethat a moral reflection of the sort would be inappropriate in the mouth of travellers, it may be replied that it is not properly a reflection, but a statement of fact, the fact, namely, of the evildoers exemption from responsibility and punishment. On the contrary, so far from being called to account, or properly punished, he escapes in the day of calamity (Job 21:30), he defies the world (Job 21:31), and is buried with honor (Job 21:32). Carey thinks that Job here makes evident allusion to a custom that prevailed among the ancient Egyptians, whose law allowed any one to bring an accusation against a deceased person previously to his interment (and even kings themselves were not exempted from this death judgment); if the accusation was fully proved, and the deceased was convicted of having led a bad life, he was obliged to be placed in his own house, and was debarred the customary rites of interment, even though the tomb had been prepared for him. Less simple and probable than the explanation given above. E.]
Job 21:32 seq. continue the report of those who had travelled much, not however (any more than in Job 21:30) in their ipsissimis verbis strictly quoted, but in such a way that Job fully appropriates to himself that which they say (to wit, their vivid representation of the brilliant career of the wicked), so that accordingly even Job 21:31 need not be regarded as properly an interruption of that report. And he ( pointing back to the Job 21:30 [emphatic, according to the view which regards the as also the subject of Job 21:31. Hethe same who lives that lawless, defiant, outwardly successful life, is the favorite of fortune to the very last. Feared in his life, he is again honored in his death. E.] is borne away to burial, in full honor, and with a great procession; comp. on Job 21:30; also Job 10:19; Job 17:1. [Like above, is also an amplificative plural. Del. It would thus mean a splendid tomb]. And on a monument he (still) keeps watch: as one immortalized by a statue, or a stone monument. This is not to be specially understood in accordance with the Egyptian custom (in that case the reference here being to pyramids; comp. on Job 3:14), but in accordance with a custom, still prevalent in the East, specially among the Bedouin Arabs, of building large grave-mounds, or a domed structure towering above the grave () in memory of the honored dead. In such a lofty monument the dead man keeps watch, as it were, over his own resting-place, without its being necessary to suppose that he was particularly represented by a statue, or a picture on the wall (like those in Egyptian vaults, to which Schlottm. refers here by way of comparison). [Possibly there is also here some allusion to inscriptions warning off those who would desecrate the tomb, similar to those found on the sarcophagus of Eschmunazar, king of Sidon. Renan]. This explanation is in striking harmony not only with well-known customs of the east, but also with the etymologically established signification of = heap, tumulus, monumentum (comp. , Gen 31:46 seq.). It agrees not less with that which was previously spoken by Bildad to precisely the opposite effect in respect to the memory of the evil-doer after his death in Job 18:17, where the latter presupposes the complete extinction of the name of the ungodly, whereas Job on the contrary makes the same not only not to sleep the sleep of death, but rather to watch, as though he continued to live. [And Noyes accordingly renders: Yea, he still survives upon his tomb. He enjoys as it were a second life upon his tomb, in the honors paid to his memory, his splendid monument, and the fame he leaves behind him.]. The more striking the above points of agreement, the less necessary is it to fatigue ourselves in company with the ancient versions and Bttcher (Proben, etc., p. 22) in finding how could be taken in the sense of heaps of sheaves, and still obtain a sentiment suited to the context.1 Equally unnecessary is it (with Bttcher de infer, p. 40, [Conant], Hahn, Rdiger, etc.) to take impersonally; watch is held over his grave-mound, etc. a rendering with which the suffix-less (not ) would agree but indifferently. [Moreover, says Delitzsch, the placing of guards of honor by graves is an assumed, but not proved, custom of antiquity. The rendering of E. V. and shall remain in the tomb, is feeble as well as incorrect.].
Job 21:33. Soft lie upon him the clods [or sods] of the valley (Job 38:38). Lit., sweet are to him the clods of the valley, those, namely, beneath which he rests. Valleys are particularly desired in the East as places of burial; witness the valleys around Jerusalem, abounding as they do in graves. The favorite custom of the Arabs of burying their distinguished dead on eminences, is accordingly not referred to here (comp. Del. on Job 21:32). [These words also seem to suppose that the person who is buried may partake, in some respects, of the prosperous state of the tomb which contains him. Such an idea seems to have been indulged by Sultan Amurath the Great, who died in 1450, [and who in the suburbs of Prusa] now lieth in a chappell without any roofe, his grave nothing differing from the manner of the common Turks; which, they say, he commanded to be done, in his last will, that the mercie and blessing of God (as he termed it) might come unto him by the shining of the sunne and moone, and falling of the raine and dew of heaven upon his grave. KnollesHist. of the Turks, p. 332. Noyes]. And after him draws ( intransitive as in Jdg 4:6) all the world:viz. by imitating his example, by entering on the same path of a life spent in earthly enjoyment and luxury, which he, and an unnumbered multitude of others before him (as the third member says) had already trod. Thus rendered the sentence undoubtedly expresses an exaggeration; in the there lies an unjust accusation of misanthropic bitterness against the great mass of men. [For a somewhat similar misanthropic, or at least cynical bitterness, comp. what Bildad says in Job 8:19.] This same characteristic however corresponds perfectly to the exasperated and embittered temper of Job; whereas on the contrary to interpret all the world draws after him of a large funeral procession (Vaih., [Wemyss, Carey] etc.), yields when compared with 32a an inappropriate tautology, and to refer it to those who follow after him through sharing the same fate of death and burial (Delitzsch [Noyes]) seems altogether too vapid in the present connection.
Job 21:34. Conclusion: with a reference to Job 21:27. How then (, quomodo ergo, stronger than the simple ) can you comfort me so vainly (comp Job 9:29)? Of your replies there remains (over nothing but) falsehood! Lit. and as for your replies (absolute case, Ewald, 309, b)there remaineth over falsehood., scil. , a perfidious disposition towards God (comp. Jos 22:22), and for that same reason also towards ones neighbor. By this is intended the same intriguing, malicious, deceitful eagerness to suspect and to slander, with which in Job 21:27 he had reproached his opponents.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The significance of this discourse of Jobs in respect to the progress of the colloquy lies in the fact that it marks the transition from the predominantly personal treatment of the problem, which has thus far obtained on the part both of the friends and of Job to a discussion dealing more immediately with the subject-matter, and for that reason more calm, less passionate in its tone, and more directly preparing the way for the solution. The venomous accusations of the friends, (which in the immediately preceding discourse of Zophar had reached the climax of bluntness and odiousness), do not indeed cease from this point on. Just as little does the tone of bitterness disappear from Jobs replies, which on the contrary at the beginning and close of the present discourse exhibits itself in a manner decidedly marked (in Job 21:2-3; which contain sarcastic allusions to the empty consolations of the friends; in Job 21:34, with its reproach of falsehood and unfaithfulness). From this point on however we find, along with these personalities, a tendency, characterized by an ever increasing objectivity, to consider calmly the question of fact involved in the matter in controversy; the result indeed being that Jobs superiority over his opponents as regards their respective points of view becomes more and more obvious. In his former discourse he had discussed only occasionally and incidentally their favorite doctrine concerning the horrible end of the wicked; and in what he had said he had exhibited so little prudence that he had appeared as one who presumptuously challenged the divine righteousness, and had thus only confirmed the friends evil opinion of his moral character (see Job 9:22-24; Job 10:3; Job 12:6). Now, however, he proceeds to discuss the question in controversy calmly and thoroughly, opposing to their proposition, that the life of the ungodly must infallibly end in misery, the fact, which experience establishes that it is quite commonly the case that the prosperity of the wicked lasts until their death, while on the contrary the pious are pursued with all sorts of calamities to the grave. In respect to the reflection of an apparent injustice which this experience seems to cast on God, the author of so unequal a distribution of human destinies, Job this time expresses himself with discreet awe and reserve. Instead of assuming the tone of a presumptuous blasphemer, and accusing God of injustice, or tyrannical severity, he treats the contradiction between prosperity and virtue, as it so often exhibits itself in this earthly life, as a dark enigma, not to be solved by human wisdom. And instead of holding up this antagonism before his opponents with frivolous satisfaction or exulting arrogance, he exhibits whenever he approaches the subject deep perplexity and painful agitation (Job 21:5-6), and in the latter part of the description he even points out the mystery which surrounds the phenomenon under consideration as a disciplinary trial for human knowledge, constraining to reverential submission beneath the inscrutable ways of God (Job 21:22; Job 21:31, according to the more correct explanation: see above on the passages). In short, he discourses concerning this mystery as an earnest thinker, resolutely maintaining his religious integrity, and putting the counsel of the ungodly far from him (Job 21:16); and this calm, earnest, dignified treatment accounts for his victory over his opponents, who as may be seen from the following, which is the last stage of the colloquy, are constrained to acknowledge his affirmations in respect to the disproportion between prosperity and moral worthiness in this life as being in great part true, and thus to make a beginning toward a complete surrender.
2. Notwithstanding this undeniable superiority over his opponents, which Job here already exhibits, his argument presents certain vulnerable points, which expose him to further attacks from them. For in so far as, with manifest one-sidedness, it completely ignores the instances, which occur frequently enough, of a righteous apportionment of mens destinies, and exhibits the instances of the opposite fact, by a process of abstract generalization, as alone of actual occurrence, it does injustice on the one side to the friends, who are thereby indirectly classified with the wicked who are unworthy of their prosperity; while on the other side it becomes an arraignment of God, who is described as though he gave no proof of a really righteous retribution, but rather decreed continually examples of the contrary. Indeed in one instance, (Job 21:19-21) the speaker seems to be guilty even of formally teaching God, in that he here maintains (in opposition to a familiar application of the theory of retribution set forth in the Law, Exo 20:5; Deu 24:16, an application controverted also by Jeremiah and Ezekiel), that God punishes with justice only where He exacts expiation of the evil-doer himself, and not of his children after him. The consequence that God does not punish where He ought to punish, is but a short remove from this proposition, which is accordingly easily liable to the reproach of speaking unbecomingly of God. The judgment of Job accordingly in the present discourse concerning God and His dealings with mens destinies is the less pure and correct in so far as it in no wise distinguishes between the God of the present, and the God of the future, as we find him doing in Job 19:25 seq. For this reason, and because the sufferer begins anew to yield to the pressure of his outward and inward sufferings, the hope of a blessed future in the life beyond, which had previously irradiated his misery, is completely obscured.
3. Notwithstanding this partial obscuration of his spiritual horizon, Job in the discourse before us utters much that is beautiful, profoundly true, and heart-stirring. The first discourse pronounced by Job after the inspired pan of hope in Job 19:25 seq., there may be discerned in it a certain hallowing influence thence proceeding, which justifies in a measure the remark of Sanctius on that passage: From this point on to the end of the book Job is not the same is he has been heretofore. His description of the success and abounding prosperity of the ungodly, by its many points of contact with similar moral pictures, such as Psalms 37; Psalms 73; Jer 12:1 seq.; Hab 1:13 seq.; Ecclesiastes 7, etc., commends itself as being perfectly true, and derived from life. Especially does the circumstance that in his observation of the prosperity of the wicked he shows himself continually inclined to restrain himself within the bounds of modesty, and the limitations prescribed by the contemplation of the unsearchable operations of God, give him an indisputable advantage over the description of his opponents (and especially of his immediate predecessor Zophar), which is one-sided in the opposite direction, and for that very reason less true. The speeches of Zophar and of Job are both true and false,both one-sided, and therefore mutually supplementary. If, however, we consider further, that Job is not able to deny the occurrence of such examples of punishment, such revelations of the retributive justice of God, as those which Zophar represents as occurring regularly and without exception; that, however, on the other hand, exceptional instances undeniably do exist, and the friends are obliged to be blind to them, because otherwise the whole structure of their opposition would fall in,it is manifest that Job is nearer to the truth than Zophar (Delitzsch i. p. 425).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Job 21:6. Zeyss: Because reason cannot comprehend the mystery of affliction, and why God often deals so severely with His children, it comes to pass that even in pious hearts mournful thoughts frequently spring up, and they tremble in their great sorrow; Psa 37:1; Psa 73:12; Jer 12:1, etc.v. Gerlach: Doubts touching the rectitude of Gods government of the world, have in them that which makes our inmost feelings quiver; the thought makes all the foundations of human existence quake.
Job 21:7 seq. Seb. Schmidt: The happiness of the ungodly is described; and it is shown that they are happy (1) in themselves
Job 21:7; (2) in their children
Job 21:8; (3) in their houses
Job 21:9; (4) in their cattle
Job 21:10; (5) in their flocks
Job 21:11; (6) in a life which is joyous and merry
Job 21:12; (7) in a death which at the last is not sad
Job 21:13. Wohlfarth: What must we bear in mind, in order that we may not err as to God and virtue, when we see the ungodly prosperous, the godly afflicted? If Job recoiled from such a sight, who can blame him, a sufferer sorely tried, and with but imperfect knowledge of God? But a Christian can and will guard himself against such doubts; for he knows that according to Gods sovereign decree outward prosperity has often no relation to a mans moral worth; that the good things of this world will not long make man happy, and that without a peaceful conscience happiness in this earth is impossible; that frequently the earthly prosperity which the wicked enjoy is the means of their punishment; that the place of retribution is not yet in this world; and that God, whose counsels we cannot penetrate, will notwithstanding assuredly compensate pious sufferers for their earthly losses.
Job 21:22 seq. Starke: In holy fear we should wonder at Gods judgments; but we should by no means sit in judgment upon them, nor inquire after the reason of His conduct; Isa 45:9. v. Gerlach: The righteous and the ungodly have both their various destinies, but these have nothing to do with their position before God; there lies another mystery behind which our short-sighted speeches and thoughts cannot unveil.
Job 21:27 seq. Starke (after Osiander and the Tbingen Bible): The ungodly are often highly exalted in order that afterwards their fall may be so much the greater. Although in this world, occupying high places, they do evil without terror, and are punished by nobody, there will come nevertheless a day of judgment, when their wickedness will be brought to view, and before all the world they will be put to shame.
Footnotes:
[1]Witness the following curious effort of Bernard: [Honored] as when he watched over his corn-shocks. Just as in his life-time people were obliged (through their fear of him) to salute him humbly, when they passed before him as he stood watching over his shocks of corn, that no poor man might glean an ear, so must they testify their respect to his body when carried to the grave.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
Job again takes up the discourse in this Chapter, and makes another appeal against the false reasoning of his friends. He contendeth, that the wicked sometimes prosper in this life, and therefore it is not less to be expected that the righteous should sometimes suffer: but in death they are alike.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
(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.
The man of Uz makes another attempt to win the kindness of his friends, that they might consider his case, at peculiarly needing commiseration. But if he cannot move them to this, he desires still to be heard; and if, after what he had further to say, they were still so harsh in their censures, that then they should mock on.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 21:7 ; Job 21:9
‘Napoleon,’ observes Lord Rosebery, ‘is often only thinking aloud in the bitterness of his heart,’ in his conversation on religion, ‘as when he says that he cannot believe in a just God punishing and rewarding, for good people are always unfortunate and scoundrels are always lucky: “look at Talleyrand, he is sure to die in his bed”.’
Quoting this and similar passages from Job in the fourth chapter of his Service of Man, Mr. Cotter Morison adds: ‘Probably few religious persons have escaped the bitterness of feeling that they were unjustly chastened, that the rod of God was upon them and not upon the wicked. They no doubt repelled the thought with an apage Satana! regarding it as a snare of the tempter. But because the thought was banished from the mind, was the load removed from the heart? This is a trial which theologians must admit is all their own a clear addition to the weary weight “of all this unintelligible world”. Agnostics, at least, when smitten by the sharp arrows of fate, by disease, poverty, bereavement, do not complicate their misery by anxious misgivings and painful wonder why they are thus treated by the God of their salvation. The pitiless brazen heavens overarch them and believers alike; they bear their trials, or their hearts break, according to their strength. But one pang is spared them, the mystery of God’s wrath that He should visit them so sorely.’
Job 21:14
‘There is a story,’ says Mr. C. H. Pearson in his National Life and Character (p. 283), ‘that an Ultramontane speaker in an Austrian Parliament addressed the House with the interrogation: “I suppose we all believe in the Church?” and was met with a shout from the left, “We believe in Darwin”. What is apprehended is that the whole world may come to be divided in the same way, and that the disciples of Darwin or of Darwin’s successor will be the more numerous.’
References. XXI. 15. A. F. Forrest, Christian World Pulpit, No. 12, 1890. XXI. 29-31. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 410.
Job 21:34
‘Once more,’ in this chapter, says Mark Rutherford, ‘Job takes his stand on actual eyesight. He relies, too, on the testimony of those who have travelled. He prays his friends to turn away from tradition, from the idle and dead ecclesiastical reiteration of what had long ago ceased to be true, and to look abroad over the world, to hear what those have to say who have been outside the narrow valleys of Uz. Job demands of his opponents that they should come out into the open universe…. Herein lies the whole contention of the philosophers against the preachers. The philosophers ask nothing more than that the conception of God should be wide enough to cover what we see ; that it shall not be arbitrarily framed to serve certain ends.’
Vain Comfort
Job 21:34
The gloomiest of all Job’s utterances.
I. He no longer cries, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? There is that within him that would forbid even this sacred cry to pass his lips. If He who rules the world habitually leaves it to misrule, if it is a world in which favour is lavished on the bad, and the tide of misery flows at random on His best servants, what avails the complaint, the prayer, the appeal, the cry?
II. The righteous must hold on his way, in gloom and darkness. He must do what he can, bear what he can of his burden of sorrow or of doubt. For clouds and darkness are around him, and his eye cannot pierce to the sky that lies behind.
III. He knew not that, as his earlier submissiveness and resignation had won the attention of the dwellers in other spheres than earth, so his wild complaints could win the sympathy and touch the heart of far distant ages. He knew not, but he was soon to be taught, that his Heavenly Father looked gently on His erring child; on his wild perplexity and despairing words; and that the spark of faith, which would not be extinguished, was infinitely dear in that Father’s sight.
G. G. Bradley, Lectures on the Book of Job, p. 156.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
The Profitableness of Religion
Job 21:15
This inquiry will lead us, by a very little expansion of its terms, to consider the general subject of the advantages of religion. Regard the text in that broad aspect, not limiting it to prayer, or any special exercise of piety, but as opening up these great questions: What better is a man for being religious? Is it not possible to be as good and as great without religion as with it? Understand that we are speaking exclusively of the Christian religion, and not of any form of pagan superstition. What profit is it, then, that a man should believe the doctrines of Jesus Christ? What advantage arises from believing in God as revealed by his Son? If a man be sincere and consistent, what disadvantage does he suffer, as compared with the man who accepts all the doctrines of the Christian faith? Such is our subject, namely: The profitableness of religion; an answer to the great inquiry, What profit should we have, if we serve the Almighty?
No man can hold the Christian view of God’s personality and dominion without his whole intellectual nature being ennobled. He no longer looks at things superficially; he sees beyond the gray, cold cloud that limits the vision of men who have no God; the whole sphere of his intellectual life receives the light of another world. The difference between his former state and his present condition, is the difference between the earth at midnight and the earth in the glow and hope of a summer morning! This is not mere statement. It is statement, based upon the distinctest and gladdest experience of our own lives, and based also upon the very first principles of common sense. The finer and clearer our conceptions of the divine idea, the nobler and stronger must be our intellectual bearing and capacity. When the very idea of God comes into the course of man’s thinking, the quality of his thought is changed; his outlook upon life widens and brightens; his tone is subdued into veneration, and his inquisitiveness is chastened into worship. Intellectually the idea of God is a great idea. It enters the mind, as sunlight would startle a man who is groping along a path that overhangs abysses in the midst of starless gloom. The idea of God cannot enter into the mind, and mingle quietly with common thinking. Wherever that idea goes, it carries with it revolution, elevation, supremacy. We are not referring to a cold intellectual assent to the suggestion that God is, but of a reverent and hearty faith in his being and rule. Such a faith never leaves the mind as it found it. It turns the intellect into a temple; it sets within the mind a new standard of measure and appraisement; and lesser lights are paled by the intensity of its lustre. Is this mere statement? It is statement; but it is the statement of experience; it is the utterance of what we ourselves know; because comparing ourselves with ourselves we are aware that we have known and loved the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that since we have done so, our intellectual life has sprung from the dust, and refreshed itself at fountains which are accessible only to those who live In God.
This, then, is the first position for our thought and consideration, namely: That no man can entertain with reverence and trust the idea that God is, without his whole intellectual nature being lifted up to a higher plane than it occupied before; without his mind receiving great access of light and vigour. Do you say that you know some men who profess to believe in God, and who sincerely do believe in his existence and his government, and yet they are men of no intellectual breath, of no speciality in the way of intellectual culture and nobleness? We believe that to be perfectly true; but can you tell what those men would have been, small as they are now, but for the religion that is in them? At present they are very minute, intellectually speaking, exceedingly small and microscopic. But what would they have been if the idea of God’s existence and rule had never taken possession of their intellectual nature? Besides that, they are on the line of progress. There is a germ in them which may be developed, which may, by diligent culture, by reverent care, become the supreme influence in their mental lives. Such modifications must be taken into account when we are disposed to sneer at men who, though they have a God in their faith and in their hearts, are yet not distinguished by special intellectual strength. We hear of men who never mention the name of God, and who, therefore, seem to have no religion at all; who are men of very brilliant intellectual power, very fertile in intellectual resources, and who altogether have distinguished themselves in the empire of Mind. But we ask what might these men have become if they had added to intellectual greatness a spirit of reverence and adoration? It cannot surely be said that those men would not have been greater had they known what it is to worship the one living and true God? We must say that they would not have been greater and would not have had intellectual profit, before we can establish the charge that we are now arguing upon a mistaken assumption. But the suggestions are perfectly correct. Some religious men are intellectually little, some unreligious men are intellectually great; and yet neither of these suggestions touch the great question under consideration.
Not only is there an ennoblement of the nature of a man, as a whole, by his acceptance of the Christian idea of God there is more. That in itself is an inexpressible advantage; but there is a higher profit still, forasmuch as there is a vital cleansing and purification of a man’s moral being. Let a man receive the Christian idea of God, let him believe fully in God, as revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ, and a new sensitiveness is given to his conscience; he no longer loses himself in the mazes of a cunning casuistry; he goes directly to the absolute and final standard of righteousness; all moral relations are simplified; moral duty becomes transparent; he knows what is right, and does it; he knows the wrong afar off, and avoids it. Before he received the Christian idea of God and worship according to the spirit and law of Jesus Christ, he could hoodwink himself that last act of wickedness! He could put his own moral eyes out, and imagine that having closed his own vision he had extinguished all spiritual light; he could regard the flame of a candle as sufficient, without consulting the light of the sun; he could mistake a maxim for a principle, and justify by usage what he never could defend by righteousness. But now that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is in him, now that he looks at everything from a Christian standpoint, he takes a spiritual view of every question and every duty; he examines the shades and colours of his life by God’s light; and he is ashamed, with unspeakable shame, of the chicanery which enfeebled and disgraced his former existence.
This is the statement of a fact, which we ourselves have experienced. We are not in this matter to be regarded as special pleaders only. We are the witnesses as well as the advocates; we are speaking upon our oath! We have sworn upon the Holy Book, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and this we do when we say, That life in Jesus Christ the Son of God, has given us a new sensitiveness of conscience, a new moral standard, a new test of moral satisfaction. It is often urged that some persons make great professions of religion, who after all do not appear to very high moral advantage when compared with others whose profession is by no means so loud and broad. There can be no controversy upon that point. But it is not their religion that is to be blamed; it is their want of religion that is to be pointed out and deplored. Some men never open the Bible, never identify themselves with any church, and are yet considered noble, honourable, upright men in the marketplace and in the various relationships of life. But how much nobler and better better altogether such men would be if they believed in God as revealed by Jesus Christ! That is the point of view to occupy, if we would be fair to this question. It is not to be dismissed on mere superficial suggestion. There are men who disgrace the name they bear; but do not blame the name, blame those who are traitorous to its spirit and claims. There are men who do not identify themselves with any organised form of Christianity; and we do not say how far they may or may not have the Spirit of God within them; but any man who has a high natural sense of honour becomes a greater man, more spiritual in his moral definitions, more keenly spiritual in his moral vision, in proportion as he knows, and worships and serves the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Further, it is always profitable to base life upon intelligent faith. He who walks by sight only, walks in a blind alley. He who does not know the freedom and joy of reverent, loving speculation, wastes his life in a gloomy cell of the mouldiest of prisons. Even in matters that are not distinctively religious, faith will be found to be the inspiration and strength of the most useful life. It is faith that does the great work of the world. It is faith that sends men in search of unknown coasts. It is faith that re-trims the lamp of inquiry, when sight is weary of the flame. It is faith that unfastens the cable and gives men the liberty of the seas. It is faith that inspires the greatest works in civilisation. So we cannot get rid of religion unless we first get rid of faith, and when we get rid of faith we give up our birthright and go into slavery for ever! We do not say that there may not be an apparent equality between one man and another. One man may profess faith in Christ and pray to God; and the other may make no such profession. Viewed according to the mere flesh, there may even be superiority on the side of him who makes no profession of religion; there may be points of great similarity as between them; yet there may also be between them the profoundest contrast They may dwell in the same neighbourhood, yet they may live in different regions of the universe. They may reside upon the beat of the same tax-gatherer, yet may breathe atmospheres separated by immeasurable miles; and the explanation of the difficulty may be found in the presence or absence of faith. All birds are not the same birds; neither are all men the same men. Though it is very possible for a child who is looking at two birds to say, “They are both birds; one, therefore, must be as good as the other;” for the child would judge by colour and shape, and form his judgment upon things that are but superficial. Hear a dialogue and say what it means: Two birds are in conversation. “How many eyes have you?” “Two.” “So have I.” “How many wings have you?” “Two.” “So have I.” “How many legs?” “Two.” “So have I. And you are covered with feathers, and so am I.” Then the birds are both alike; they are both birds, and there is an end of the matter. No, no! They are both birds, yes. But the beak of one is as wax, and the beak of the other is as iron; the legs of the one spread out into webs, the legs of the other curl into coils of steel; the wings of the one flutter in the farmyard, the wings of the other flap themselves at the gate of the sun! They are both birds, yes. But the one is a goose, and the other is an eagle!
So it is with men in some cases. They are both the same height; they are clothed alike; they live in the same neighbourhood; they speak the same language; they use the currency of the same realm; they are in some respects upon familiar terms. Therefore, they are equal, they are both men, and they are both alike. No, not necessarily so! Outwardly the points of similarity are evident But when life sharpens itself into a crisis, when the all-determining hour comes that tries the metal of a man, you will then see who is the stronger, who has the highest quality in his nature. Is it not so in common life? We have heard a party of friends singing the same piece of music. For a while their voices blended very sweetly, and not being able to offer a scientific criticism upon the performance, we thought that they were all about equal. But presently they came to a passage of very high notes, very lofty music; and in that moment they all ceased but one, and that one voice went aloft alone, and thrilled us; by the perfectness of its ease! If they had stopped before that, we should have given common applause, and said, “One is as good as another, and thank you all.” But there was a time of trial, and in that time of trial the masterly voice rose where other voices could not follow it. It is so in the great concerns and trials of life. For days together we seem to be tolerably equal, but there come special hours, critical trials, and in those moments which are condensed lifetimes we show the stuff we are made of and the capacity we represent. It is then that the religious man if deeply and truly intelligent and earnest shows himself a man. Where there is great faith of any kind, there must also be great works. That is an advantage of faith. We do not say where there is great profession of faith, but where there is actually great trust and great capacity of spiritual reliance, there must of necessity be great service or great endurance. This law holds good all through life; it holds good in the common affairs of our daily existence. The man who has most faith will have most energy. The man who believes most will do most It may be in commerce, quite as well as in religion. It may be in the poorest, meanest industry, as well as in the higher pursuits of intellect and courage. The law is sound, good, unchangeable. Most faith, most work, most trust, most nobleness, greatest power of relying upon the future and upon great principles, and the sweeter the unmurmuring patience with which trials are encountered and endured. This is a great law in life, and not only a law in religion. It is in all aspects and departments of life philosophically true, that faith is the inspiration of industry, activity, courage, and determination to advance in life. If this be true in common affairs, what must be the works of those who lovingly believe in the Lord Jesus? Given a man who sets his heart to believe all the words of Jesus Christ, and what must be his works? His works must be like the works of his Master. What works were those? Common works? Say when he did one common thing, that is, one mean thing, one ignoble deed, or when did he set his name against one paltry transaction? His life is before you; your critical eyes are open; the challenge is wide and emphatic. Given a man, who really with his heart of hearts believes in Christ, what ought his works to be? What nobleness, what intelligence, what fearlessness, what self-sacrifice, what seeking out of causes that need redress, what binding up of broken hearts, what drying of tearful eyes! True, we are exposed to the charge of inconsistency. There are men who taunt us with knowing what is right and not doing it; who, when they see us falling on the highway, say, “Ha, ha! that is your Christianity, is it?” These men should not be taken as the standards of morality. It is one thing to sneer at another man, and quite a different thing to be worthy to be trusted as a counsellor and a guide in moral affairs.
Let us, then, who believe in Christ openly look at this great possibility, namely: Our Master may be blamed for our shortcomings. When we use the great word and do the little deed, a sword may be thrust into the side of the Son of God a sword that shall find his blood and cut his heart! Does a man a man! oh perverted word! tell his Christian wife at home, when she does some deed which does not please exactly his critical judgment, That that is her Christianity? That man is a devil, who would slay the Son of God! Does a woman taunt and jibe her husband who makes a profession of Christianity, and tell him that his misdeeds and shortcomings are attributable to his religious faith? That woman’s name ought not to be mentioned in civilised, not to say Christian, society! We are well aware that we are chargeable with inconsistency; but could we face an assembly of sneerers, we should claim this as a right blame us, do not blame our Master scourge us to the bone, to the marrow, but lay no finger on the Son of God! Visit us with your criticism and, alas! we have no reply to it. If you tell us we are inconsistent, we are obliged to say, “Even so.” We cannot retort upon you, and say, “So are you.” It is a coward’s answer. We do not avail ourselves of any immoral tu quoque . We take the blame; we say, “You are right.” The right word comes from bad lips. We cannot return the word as an unjust accusation; but may we beg, pray, entreat, that the Son of God be not blamed for our shortcomings! Does the sneerer come to us, and say, “Is this the profitableness of your religion then? Ha! you make a great profession of religion, yet look how narrow-minded you are! Is this what you call religion?” Our reply is, Do not talk to us so; it is insane talk, and it is animated by a diabolical spirit! Take us as we are; indicate our shortcomings and spare not the rod; but do not crucify the Son of God afresh!
There are persons in the world who will insist upon judging this great question of religion in the light of this inquiry “What profit should we have, if we pray unto him?” It is a vicious question; it is, as a piece of reasoning, unsound from beginning to end. Yet there is a solemn claim upon us to let our profiting appear unto all observers. We are to be living epistles, known and read of men. What a mighty change would take place in society, if we could point to ourselves as illustrations of faith; and as examples of religious love and consistency and devotion! Yet alas! every Christian has to say, “Do not look at me if you would know what religion is.” And this will be so, more or less, to the end of life; because the holier a man is, the less does he feel inclined to exhibit himself as a pattern or example to others. But that is no reason why he should be one whit the less the most loving man in his neighbourhood; the most noble man in his confraternity. It is not one whit the less a reason why he should not exercise the profoundest and most beneficent influence upon all with whom he may come in contact.
Now as to those who are observing Christians from a side point of view, and saying, “We are on the outlook to observe what your godliness does for your nature; our eyes are upon you, and if we see that you have a very great advantage over us, probably we may, by-and-by, come over to you.” They will never come! They occupy a wrong angle of vision; they are pursuing a course of vicious reasoning. The question for such to look at is, not what advantage do professors seem to have, but, What is religion itself? How can I get to know its meaning? How can I put myself under its influence? Men must not look to a minister as an example and a model, nor base their reasonings upon his character and spiritual attainments. The hoariest saint goes home if he is to be dragged to the front, to be looked at as an exhibition of the advantages and the profitableness of religion. Look at the Son of God, God the Son, the one Teacher and the only Saviour; and we risk everything upon that look, if so be it be reverent, earnest, intelligent.
Those who are merely collateral observers, do an injury to themselves in supposing that Christians are to be looked upon as the only exponents and illustrations of the profitableness of religion. Such observers miss the whole question; they waste their energy; they toil in waters where there is nothing to be caught; they pursue where there is nothing to be overtaken. We would urge such to study religion itself, to pay earnest heed to every feature of the life of Christ. We turn away, that the Master alone may be left with you. Is there a man who has read the life of Christ, who will say that if society received that life and based its policy upon it, the most beneficent revolution would not gradually occur in society? When did the Son of God ever flatter a rich or great man that he might enjoy his momentary patronage? When did the Son of God set man against man in deadly hate or mortal strife? When did the Son of God interfere with the comfort of any home? Where is the family that can say, “Not until Christ came amongst us did we know the meaning of strife and bitterness “? Can one such family be found? But ten thousand other families can give the lie to the accusation, and say they never knew what home was, till they set up on the hearthstone an altar to the living God. When men, therefore, ask what is the profitableness of religion, we say, Consider what would take place in every department of society, if the love of Christ were multiplied by the life of mankind. Then righteousness would walk in the middle of the highway; virtue would be no longer trampled in the dust, and as for oppression, its arm would be stayed; and as for cruelty its teeth would be broken with gravel!
How is this to take place? By individual inquiry, by personal consecration, by each heart looking at the question for itself and making its own decisions. May some young heart honestly say, “From this time forth I will look at the profitableness of religion in the light of Christ’s life, and not in the light of the lives of the people that are round about me. I myself will give my days and nights to a study of supreme religious questions”? Will any young heart vow that hence on, throughout all his days, he will think, inquire, read, take courage and decide for himself in the light of God’s book and Christ’s life, upon all great questions? The man to fear is the man who supposes that he knows everything. The man who will do no good, is the man who dogmatically pronounces against everybody, who makes a profession of religion and who considers himself the censor of mankind. Have hope of men who think; though at first they may think crookedly, perversely, and indistinctly. Have faith in any sign of life. It is when men are stagnant that we may give up hope. It is when men have no questions to ask that we may pronounce them dead. When they receive everything, as the rock receives rain and the desert the great sunlight, we may pronounce them dead. Opposition is better than some species of consent. Have hope of men who will contend resolutely, intelligently, though they be fighting against us with every breath they draw, and every syllable they utter be as a drawn sword. There is life, there is activity, there is desire to know and advance.
What profit should we have? Some of us never knew what life was, till we knew Jesus. We thought we knew life; but we saw it only on a cold, grey, wintry day. After we knew Christ, we saw it in summer blossom, in summer glory, in summer pomp! And we are not to be contradicted without thought and without care. Because, after all, we have this advantage over some persons, that we have tried the profitableness of sin and we have tried the experience of the religious life. Oh! imagine not that only the bad man knows the profitableness of the black art! We have been just where he is. Whatever his experience now, we know it. There is no hieroglyphic in the devil’s writing we cannot spell out to its last throb of meaning. There is no cup in the devil’s hostelry which we have not emptied, turned up, and called out for more! We have that advantage over our critics and our cruel censors; and having that advantage we say, That not until we knew Jesus, and loved the truth as it is in him, did we know the value of life, or the pain of life, that pain which is the birth-agony of supreme and eternal joy!
We could take you to many scenes that would show the infinite profitableness of faith in God. We should not withdraw the flowered curtain behind which sinful life drinks its poisoned cups. We should take you to houses that have been desolated by misfortune, and show you the profitableness of religion in the sweet patience which it has wrought in sad hearts; we should take you to the house of affliction, where youth has been turned into old age by long-continued pain, and show how the fire has left the gold and only consumed the dross; we should take you to men who once were the curse and terror of society, and show you the light of Christian intelligence in their countenances and the love of Christian charity in their actions; we should take you to the chamber “where the good man meets his fate,” and as he smiles at the last enemy, and passes upward to the quiet and holy place, calm, fearless, exultant, we should say, Behold the profit which comes of knowing and loving the Saviour of the world!
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
(See the Job Book Comments for Introductory content and general conclusions and observations).
VI
THE SECOND ROUND OF SPEECHES
Job 15-21.
In this chapter we take up the second round of speeches, commencing with the second speech of Eliphaz. This speech consists of two parts, a rejoinder to Job’s last speech and a continuation of the argument.
The main points of the rejoinder (Job 15:1-16 ) are as follows:
1. A reflection on Job’s wisdom (Job 15:1-3 ). A wise man would not answer with vain knowledge, windy words, nor reason with unprofitable words.
2. An accusation of impiety (Job 15:4-6 ). Job is irreverent, binders devotion, uses a serpent tongue of craftiness whose words are self-condemnatory. (Cf. what Caiaphas said about Christ, Mat 26:65 .)
3. A cutting sarcasm (Job 15:7-8 ). Wast thou before Adam, or before the creation of the mountains, and a member of the Celestial Council considering the creation, that thou limitest wisdom to thyself?
4. An invidious comparison (Job 15:9-10 ). What knowest thou of which we are ignorant? With us are the gray-headed, much older than thy father.
5. A bigoted rebuke (Job 15:11-16 ). You count small the consolation of God we offered you in gentle words [the reader may determine for himself how much “comfort” they offered Job and note their conceit in calling this “God’s comfort,” and judge whether it was offered in “gentle” words]. Your passions run away with you. Here a quotation from Rosenmuller is in point: Quo te tuus animus rapit? “Whither does thy soul hurry thee?” Quid oculi qui tui vibrantes? “What means thy rolling eyes?” It turns against God; this is presumptuous: A man born of woman, depraved, against God in whose sight angels are imperfect and the heavens unclean. How much more an abominable, filthy man drinking iniquity like water.
The points in the continuation of the argument are as follows:
1. Hear me while I instruct thee (Job 15:17 ). I will tell you what I have seen.
2. It is the wisdom of the ancients handed down (Job 15:18-19 ). Wise men have received it from their fathers and have handed it down to us for our special good.
3. Concerning the doom of the wicked (Job 15:20-30 ). This is a wonderful description of the course of the wicked to their final destruction, but his statements, in many instances, are not true. For instance, in his first statement about the wicked (Job 15:20 ), he says, “The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days,” which is in accord with his theory, but does not harmonize with the facts in the case. The wicked does not travail with pain “all his days.” They are not terrified “all the time” as Eliphaz here pictures them. In this passage Eliphaz intimates that Job may be guilty of pride (Job 15:25 ) and of fatness (Job 15:27 ).
4. The application (Job 15:31-35 ). If what he said about the wicked was true, his application here to Job is wrong. It will be seen that Eliphaz here intimates that Job was guilty of vanity and self-deception; that he was, perhaps, guilty of bribery and deceit, and therefore the calamity had come upon him.
The following is a summary of Job’s reply (Job 16-17) :
1. Your speech is commonplace. I have heard many such things. Ye are miserable comforters (Job 16:2 ).
2. You persist when I have urged you to desist. It is unprovoked. Your words are vain, just words of wind (Job 16:3 ).
3. If our places were changed, I could do as you do, but I would not. I would helo and comfort you (Job 16:4-5 ).
4. You ask me to cease my complaint, but whether I speak or forbear, the result is the same. I have not ensnared my feet, but God has lassoed me (Job 16:6 ).
5. He gives a fearful description of God’s assault (Job 16:7-14 ): (1) as a hunter with hounds he has harried me; (2) he has abandoned me to the malice of mine enemies; (3) as a wrestler he has taken me by the neck and shaken me to pieces; (4) as an archer he has bound me to the stake and terrified and pierced me with his arrows; (5) as a mighty conqueror he opened breach after breach in my defenses with batteringrams; and (6) as a giant he rushes on me through the breach in the assault.
6. As a result, I am clothed in sackcloth and my dignity lies prone in the dust; my face is foul with weeping, my eyelids shadowed by approaching death, although no injustice on my part provoked it and my prayer was pure (Job 16:15-17 ).
7. I appeal to the earth to cover my blood and to the heavenly witness to vouch for me. Friends may scorn my tears, but they are unto God. (See passages in Revelation and Psalms.) Note here the messianic prayer, “that one might plead for a man with God, as a son of man pleadeth for his neighbor.” But my days are numbered and mockers are about me (Job 16:18-17:2 ).
8. The plea for a divine surety (messianic) but God has made me a byword, who had been a tabret. Future ages will be astonished at my case and my deplorable condition (Job 17:3-16 ).
There are several things in this speech worthy of note, viz: 1. The messianic desire which finds expression later as David and Isaiah adopt the words of Job to fit their Messiah. 2. Job is right in recognizing a malicious adversary, but wrong in thinking God his adversary; God only permitted these things to come to Job, but Satan brought them.
There are two parts of Bildad’s second speech (Job 18 ), viz: a rejoinder (Job 18:1-4 ) and an argument (Job 18:5-21 ). The main points of his rejoinder are:
1. Job hunts for words rather than speaks considerately.
2. Why are the friends accounted as beasts and unclean in your sight?
3. Job was just tearing himself with anger and altogether without reason.
4. A sarcasm: The earth will not be forsaken for thee nor will the rock be moved out of its place for thee (Job 18:1-4 ).
The argument (Job 18:5-21 ) is fine and much of it is true, but it is wrong in its application. The following are the points as applied to the wicked:
1. His light shall be put out.
2. The steps of his strength shall be straightened.
3. His own counsel shall be cast down.
4. There shall be snares everywhere for his feet.
5. Terrors of conscience shall smite him on every side.
6. He shall be destroyed root and branch and in memory.
There are also two parts to Job’s great reply: His expostulation with his friends (Job 19:1-6 ) and his complaint against God (Job 19:7-29 ). The points of his expostulation are:
1. Ye reproach me often without shame and deal hardly with me.
2. If I have sinned, it is not against you but my error remains with myself.
3. The snares you refer to are not because of my fault but they are from God, for he has subverted me and compassed me with his net.
The items of his complaint against God are as follows:
1. He will not hear me, though I am innocent; surely there is no justice.
2. He has walled me up and set darkness in my path.
3. He has stripped me of my glory and he has broken me down on every side.
4. He has plucked up my hope like a tree and his fiery wrath is against me.
5. He has counted me an adversary and I am besieged by armies round about.
6. He has put away from me my brethren, friends, kindred, family, servants, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
7. I appeal to you, O ye my friends, for pity instead of persecution.
8. Oh that my words were written in a book or were engraved with a pen of iron in the rock forever, but I know that my redeemer liveth and will at last stand upon the earth, and I shall behold him in my risen body, then to be vindicated by him.
9. Now I warn you to beware of injustice to me lest the sword come upon you, for there is a judgment ahead. Here it may be noted that Job 19:23-24 refer to the ancient method of writing and that Job expresses in Job 19:25-27 a great hope for the future. Compare the several English translations of Job 19:26 with each other and the context and then answer:
1. Does Job intend to convey the idea that he will see God apart from his body) i.e., when death separates soul and body?
2. Or does he mean that at the resurrection he will see God from the viewpoint of his risen body?
3. If you hold the latter meaning, which version, after all, is the least misleading, the King James, the Revised, the American Standard Version, or Leeser’s Jewish translation? The answer is, Job here means that he will see God from the viewpoint of his risen body, as the King James Version conveys.
Zophar’s second speech is harsher than his first, and consists of a rejoinder (Job 20:1-3 ) and an argument (Job 20:4-29 ).
The points of his rejoinder are:
1. Haste is justified because of his thoughts;
2. The reproach of Job 19:28-29 , “If ye say, How may we pursue him and that the cause of the suffering is in me, then beware of the sword. My goel [redeemer] will defend me,” he answers thus: “Thus do my thoughts answer me and by reason of this there is haste in me; I hear the reproof that puts me to shame and the spirit of my understanding gives answer.
The points of his argument are:
1. Since creation the prosperity of the wicked has been short, his calamity sure and utter, extending to his children.
2. The very sweetness of his sin becomes poison to him.
3. He shall not look on streams flowing with milk, butter, and honey.
4. He shall restore and shall not swallow it down, even according to all that he has taken.
5. In the height of his enjoyment the sword smites him and the arrow pierces him,
6. Darkness wraps him, terrors fright him, and heaven’s supernatural fires burn him.
7. Heaven reveals his iniquity and earth rises up against him. This is the heritage appointed unto him by God. Certain other scriptures carry out the idea of milk, butter, and honey, viz: Exo 3:8 ; Exo 13:5 ; Exo 33:3 ; 2Ki 18:32 ; Deu 31:20 ; Isa 7:22 ; Joe 3:18 , and several classic authors refer to them, also, as Pindar, Virgil, Ovid, and Horace. It will be noted that Zophar intimates that Job might be guilty of hypocrisy (Job 19:12 ), of oppressing the poor (Job 19:19 ) and of greediness (Job 19:20 ).
Job’s reply (Job 21 ) is more collected than the former, and the points are as follows:
1. Hear me and then mock. This is only fair and may afterward prove a consolation to you.
2. Do I address myself to man for help? My address is to God and, because I am unheard, therefore I am impatient?
3. Mark me and be astonished. What I say even terrifies me.
4. The prosperity of the wicked who defy God is a well known fact.
5. How seldom is their light put out. They are not destroyed as you say.
6. Ye say God visits it on his children. What is that to him?
7. Here are two cases, one prosperous to the end and the other never so. The grave is sweet to both.
8. God’s reserved judgment is for the wicked. Do you not know this?
9. In conclusion I must say that your answers are falsehoods.
In this second round of speeches we have observed that Job has quieted down to a great extent and seems to have risen to higher heights of faith, while the three friends have become bolder and more desperate. They have gone beyond insinuations to intimations, thus suggesting certain sins of which Job might be guilty. While Job has greatly improved in his spirit and has ascended a long way from the depths to which he had gone in the moral tragedy, the climax of the debate has not yet been reached. Tanner says, “While the conflict of debate is sharper, Job’s temper is more calm; and he is perceptibly nearer a right attitude toward God. He is approaching a victory over his opponents, and completing the more important one over himself.”
QUESTIONS
1. Of what does the second speech of Eliphaz consist?
2. What the main points of the rejoinder (Job 15:1-16 )?
3. What the points in the continuation of the argument?
4. What summary of Job’s reply Job 16:16-17 )?
5. What things in this speech are worthy of note?
6. What the two parts of Bildad’s second speech Job 18:18 )?
7. What the main points of his rejoinder?
8. What can you say of his argument and what the points of it?
9. What the two parts to Job’s great reply?
10. What the points of his expostulation?
11. What the items of his complaint against God?
12. Explain Job 19:23-24 ,
13. What great hope does Job express in Job 19:25-27 ?
14. Compare the several English translations of Job 19:26 with each other and the context and then answer: What great hope does Job express in Job 19:25-27 ?
15. How does Zophar’s second speech compare with the first and what the parts of this speech?
16. What the points of his rejoinder?
17. What the points of his argument?
18. What scriptures carry out the idea of milk, butter, and honey, and what classic authors refer to this?
19. What can you say of Job’s reply (Job 21 ) and what his points?
20. What have we found in the second round of speeches?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Job 21:1 But Job answered and said,
Ver. 1. But Job answered and said ] Disproving and refuting that proposition of theirs concerning the infelicity of the ungodly by reason, by experience, and by divine authority; all which evince and evidence that neither is prosperity a proof of men’s innocence, nor adversity a mark of their wickedness, as Zophar and his fellows would have it. And that they might not any more interrupt him, nor think him too rough, he useth a gentle preface, craving attention, and pressing them thereunto by many arguments in the first six verses.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job Chapter 21
Job now answers in the twenty-first chapter. “Hear diligently my speech.” It was a great relief to the tried man to speak out. He had entirely failed to win their sympathy, but still Job preferred to speak plainly out, and had no difficulty in meeting anything they had to say. “And let this be your consolation. Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.” It was severe, but still it was not more than they deserved. “As for me, is my complaint to man?” In the midst of all this he has the deep sense of having to do with God, and that is true piety. “And if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?” i.e., I do not understand it; that is the thing that makes it so terrible. “Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth. Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.” And what was it that made him so afraid? Why, he too saw just the very opposite of what Zophar only saw.
Zophar confined himself simply to the particular cases of God’s dealing judicially with some specially wicked men. And there are such cases every now and then. A man calls God’s name in vain, and swears to a downright falsehood – perhaps theft, or any other breach – and, occasionally, a man drops down dead after it. Well, that is a very unusual thing. Other people swear to it and keep their money, and try to keep their character, but all the while they are heaping up wrath against the day of wrath. Now what made Job tremble so when he saw wickedness prosper? As he says here, “Wherefore do the wicked live?” He says, ‘I can understand it so far; I can perfectly understand God casting down wicked men – it is only what they deserve; but it is not the fact, for the great mass of them seem to flourish in their wickedness for the time.’ “Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Their seed is established in their sight with them.” It was not at all passing away like a dream (as Zophar pretended) as a general role; it was rather the other way. “Their houses are safe from fear.” Many a pious man’s house is broken into by a robber; many a pious man’s house is burnt over his head; and here there might be wicked men of the worst character, and they do not come into these troubles at all!
But there is the awful end that awaits them, the awakening up like the rich man Dives, “in hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments.” Ah! that was a solemn thing, but it was the Lord that gave us that picture. Nobody could speak positively of that till the Lord came. And that is not describing what will be after the resurrection; this is what takes place directly after death. And it was not a wicked man as he appeared in the eyes of the Jews; it was not a man who was a drunkard or a thief, or a robber, or anything of that kind. He was a man highly respected; he was a man characterised by self-indulgence. We do not hear of any swearing; we do not hear of any scoffing. There he was; he acknowledged father Abraham even in the midst of his torments; and the Lord is the One that describes it. Dives is anxious about the souls of his five brethren; he was anxious about them. That is to say, he was a man whom people might consider of high respectability, but there was no faith, no repentance, no looking to God, no waiting for the Messiah. He was quite content to enjoy all his wealth; and, as for poor Lazarus, the dogs might look after him for all he cared about him.
“Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.” Ah! but it will be. “Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.” Everything went flourishing. “They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance” – everything prosperous and smiling – “They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.” It is rather serious to find all that with such bad company – a solemn check for those that are given up. “They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Therefore, they say unto God, Depart from us.” Job’s words are far more solemn and more true than the violent Zophar had painted. “For we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? and what profit should we have if we pray unto Him?” It is not meant that they say that to man, but that is what their conduct says to God.
Therefore there is great force in what we read, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” Perhaps he never uttered that once in his life, “There is no God,” but it is what his heart says. God reads the language of the heart. And the evil servant says in his heart, “My lord delayeth his coming.” Perhaps he preached what people call the “Second Coming”; he may have preached it, but that is what his heart said. He was not really waiting for Christ at all; he was glad that Christ stayed away. There never was such a prayer with him as “Come, Lord Jesus.” So that it is a very solemn thing – the way in which the Lord takes the crafty and reads the heart; and therefore, it is of all importance that we should judge ourselves, and look to the Lord, that we may have Christ Himself before our souls so habitually that we are filled by His mind and directed by His love, and led by the Holy Spirit who gives the needed power and grace to those that look to Christ.
“Lo, their good is not in their hand; the counsel of the wicked is far from me.” Job was farther from these people than his three friends. It is very possible that these three friends liked to be on good terms with people that were so flourishing, for that is a very common snare. People like to be in what they call “good company,” and to be respected by people that are respectable in this life; but where is Christ in all that? Our hearts are called to be with that which Christ values, and with those whom Christ loves. I do not say we are not to have the love of compassion for the very worst of mankind – surely, surely; but this is a different kind of love altogether. It is loving the family of God. This is higher than loving an unconverted wife; higher than loving our children if they are not brought to God. The family of God are nearer to us, and for all eternity, and we are glad to walk in that faith and love now. “How oft is the candle of the wicked put out!” There he allows the other side that they were all harping upon; they only looked at that. “And how oft cometh their destruction upon them!” There were such cases; he had seen and known them, and in no way disputed them.
You see, what Zophar and the others press, was only a half a truth. Now half a truth never sanctifies. What you leave out is perhaps of equal, or, it may be, of still greater importance, and there was just the difference. With all his defect, Job really was cleaving to the truth, and he looked at it with a larger heart and with a more exercised conscience. There are people moralised, or what you call “sermonised”; but this did not come from their souls; it was merely their correct talk according to the thoughts of men. It was not the language really of faith at all. Job’s was, in spite of all its defects. “They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away. God layeth up his iniquity for his children; he rewardeth him, and he shall know it. His eyes shall see his destruction” – he allowed it might run in the family – “and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.” “For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?” i.e., selfishness is at the bottom of all these wicked men that flourish in this world. And even their children are in no way an object to be compared with the number of their own months. That is what they want – to live as long as possible.
“Shall any teach God knowledge?” – now he turns to Him to vindicate him – “seeing he judgeth those that are high. One dieth” – you see he took in the two sides. This very man had spoken of truth being double; but it was all mere talk; it was not put into practice at all. It was a wise saw; it was merely an apophthegm, without being the true expression of his feeling and life. But Job had a reality about him. “Another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. They shall lie down alike in the dust” – and the careless world goes to their funeral, and thinks they are both all right, that it is all right with them both. That is what is called “judging with charity” – charitable judgment! They hope that everybody goes to heaven, unless they are too bad – openly wicked! Now what is the judgment according to God? That if One died for all, then all were dead. That is the state of man. There is no question at all of their state or their end there. And He died for all – all mankind. They are all inexcusable. And the death of Christ makes them in a worse state if they do not believe than if Christ had never come and never died. He died for all, that they which live – ah! there is the difference – they which live – should not any longer live to themselves. That is what they all did. The dead – the spiritually dead – live to nothing but themselves. It might be honour; it might be seeking the applause of mankind and the world; but they live to themselves, not to Him.
But the Christian, the believer, lives to Him who died for us and rose again. That is not said to be for all. The resurrection of the Lord is the pledge that He will be by and by the Judge of those that do not believe. The resurrection to the believer is the sign-witness on God’s part that his sins are all blotted out. For the One that became responsible for his sins went down into the grave, and God has raised Him up to show us that our sins are gone. It was for all that believe, and for none others. And what for the others? The risen Man is the One that will judge all. That is what the apostle declared to the Athenians. They were not believers, and therefore he does not speak of any being justified; but he tells them that the resurrection of the Lord is the proof and pledge which God has given that He is going to judge all the habitable world by that Man whom He has raised from the dead. What makes it so solemn is that it was man that put Him in the grave; it was man that slew Him. It was God that raised Him up. And that risen Man will judge them, all that are found alive – all the habitable world. It is not here the White Throne judgment; it is the Lord judging the habitable world when He comes again in the clouds of heaven. He does not speak here about taking up all that are Christ’s, but of His coming down in judgment upon all that are not Christ’s.
“Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.” Here you see he is now returning to their fault through this narrowness of their view, and the impropriety of allowing people to surmise evil without the slightest ground in fact for it. No, we are called upon to live what we know; we are called upon to speak when we do know; but where we do not know we look to God. “For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked? Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens, that the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction?” That is the reason why they flourish now. He laid hold of the great truth morally in a very admirable manner. “They shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.” Not a question of now! These friends were all looking at the present time as the adequate proof of what God thought about men – that if He thinks we are all walking well we are flourishing, and if we come into trouble it is because we are bad people. That was their theory, an utterly wrong and corrupt theory. “Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done? Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb. The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him” – looking at the outward appearance – “and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him. How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood? “
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
answered = replied. See note on Job 4:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
By Chuck Smith
This time shall we turn to the book of Job, chapter 21.
Zophar has just concluded in chapter 20 his second speech in which, again, he sort of just gives some of the traditions and quotes some of the proverbs that are common, and sort of reiterating some of his accusations against Job. “Knowest not this of old, since man was placed on the earth” ( Job 20:4 ). “You see, don’t you know that man has known this forever?” Going back to some of the old proverbs and so forth.
“That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment?” ( Job 20:5 ) This is just some of the old proverbs. “The triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the hypocrite is for a moment.” And then the insinuations there is that Job actually is a wicked man and that he is a hypocrite. And then he makes accusations against Job in verse Job 21:19 : “Because he has oppressed and forsaken the poor, because he has violently taken away a house which he built it not.” In other words, he made a foreclosure against some poor people. And so, concluding in verse Job 21:29 : “This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him from God.” That is the calamity and the destruction that will come upon him for doing these wicked things.
So Job answered and said, Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations. And allow me that I may speak; and after I have spoken, just mock on ( Job 21:1-3 ).
Job has just really had it with these guys and he’s not really very kind in his remarks to them anymore. But I can sort of understand Job’s position. They just…he’s looking for sympathy; he’s looking for understanding. He doesn’t have it. They just are convinced in their minds that Job is a wicked, ungodly man. Though they can’t point it out to him, though he’s challenged them to, “point out my wickedness,” they can’t do it. Yet they’re convinced of this fact. Job cannot convince them otherwise.
And so let me speak and then after I have spoken, go ahead and mock on.
As for me, is my complaint to man? if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled? Go ahead, mark me, be astonished, put your hand over your mouth. Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling takes hold on my flesh ( Job 21:4-6 ).
Now, Job shows the fallacy of the whole arguments that they’re putting against him, because the arguments are this: That the righteous prosper. If you’re really a righteous man, you’ll be prosperous, that it just follows. And that if you are wicked, then calamity is sure to come, thus any calamity that comes into your life is a sure sign of wickedness. And any prosperity is a sure sign of righteousness. This is the basic fallacious philosophy.
Now in the New Testament we find this same philosophy is spoken against. As those who think that godliness is a way to gain, or it’s a way to prosperity. That is spoken of in the New Testament, it says, “from such turn away” ( 1Ti 6:5 ), those that say living a godly life is a way to be prosperous. So Job is putting down their whole philosophy by just pointing out basic facts, and it is this:
Why do the wicked live, become old, yea, they are mighty in power? Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casts not her calf. They send forth their little ones like a flock, their children dance. They take the timbrel, the harp, rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave ( Job 21:7-13 ).
In other words, they do not have a prolonged suffering at the time of death. They live, their children are happy, their children are in the dances, and so forth. They are the wicked, they seem to be prosperous and then they die suddenly rather than having a long suffering, lingering kind of a death.
Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; we don’t desire the knowledge of your ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him? ( Job 21:14-15 )
In other words, they scorn God. They shun God. They say, “Hey, why should I serve God? Look, I’m happy. I’ve got everything I want. Why do I need God? You know, God can take a walk as far as I’m concerned. I don’t need Him. I’m doing fine.” And so this is, Job pointed out, this is the way the wicked are. Now you say the wicked are cut down, the wicked are cursed, the wicked, you know, are cut off and all. But wait a minute, that’s not my observation. Wicked people oftentimes prosper, prosper abundantly. In fact, in the seventy-third Psalm, this was a situation that almost caused the psalmist to stumble.
If you want to turn for a moment to Psa 73:1-28 , you’ll see that the psalmist was observing much the same things as Job here concerning the wicked, as he declares, “Truly God is good to Israel, and all those that are of a clean heart” ( Psa 73:1 ). In other words, he starts out with a basic, foundational truth. I know this: God is good. I know that. It’s important that you know that. It’s important that you have certain foundational truths upon which you stand. Upon which you can fall back, because you’re not going to always understand why certain things have happened to you. You’re not going to understand that. So whenever you come up against something you don’t understand, you must fall back on what you do understand, certain foundational truths. And this is one: God is good. I know that. But, the psalmist said, “I know God is good.”
But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well-nigh slipped. I was envious of the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: [Much the same thing, they don’t go through prolonged periods of suffering before they die. They seem to die quickly without a lot of suffering.] their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than their heart could wish. They are corrupt, they speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, their tongue walks through the earth. Therefore his people return hither: and the waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. And they said, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches ( Psa 73:2-12 ).
Now, you see, the psalmist is observing much the same as Job. That wicked people oftentimes prosper. In fact, sometimes they prosper abundantly. Job said, “Their children grow up before them. They don’t have any trouble. Their bulls gender. Their cows, you know, caste their calves and they don’t die. They’re prospered. They’re blessed. And they’re cursing God. They say, ‘Why do I need God. I don’t need God. I’m happy. I’m satisfied.'”
And the psalmist is observing much the same thing and he said, “It almost wiped me out. It almost caused me to trip up when I saw this.” It drew him to false conclusions. He said, “I’ve cleansed my heart in vain. I’ve washed my hands in innocency. For all the time I am plagued. I’m chastened” ( Psa 73:13-14 ).
“It doesn’t pay to try and serve God. The wicked have it so good, and here I’m trying to do what’s right and I’m in trouble all the time. I’m plagued. Everything’s going wrong. You know, I can’t pay my bills, and all. And it doesn’t pay to serve God.” It is really sort of the suggestion here.
“When I thought to know this,” he said, “it was too painful for me. Until I went into the sanctuary of the Lord, and then I saw their end” ( Psa 73:16-17 ). You see, our problem is that our vision oftentimes is too narrow. We see only that which is seen and it will cause you to trip up. I can’t understand the disparities of life. I don’t understand why wicked people oftentimes prosper and why godly people oftentimes suffer. There are disparities that I don’t understand. I know that God is good. I know that God is righteous. I know that God is fair. But I don’t know why good, godly people have to suffer. I don’t know why ungodly people who really curse God, who want nothing to do with God, are so oftentimes very prosperous, seemingly always in excellent health, never seeming to have problems. “Until I went into the sanctuary of the Lord. I was almost wiped out. I almost… it almost caused my foot to slip. I was almost gone.” What did he discover in the sanctuary of the Lord? He discovered, then, the end result. “Then I saw their end.” You see, I see now on out beyond. I see the eternity and the long-term view. And when I look out beyond just today and tomorrow, and I look into eternity and I see the end of the wicked, then I am no longer envious of the wicked. How could I be envious of the wicked who are cast into hell? “Surely you have set them in slippery places,” the psalmist said. “They shall go down in a moment” ( Psa 73:18 ). So I can’t be envious of them any longer when I see the end result.
Now this is what coming into the sanctuary of the God should always be, a broadening experience for you. Because we do get battered about many times in our worldly relationships, on the job, in school and so forth, and we come in dragging Sunday morning, battered and bruised by the contact with that alien world out there, because actually we are strangers and pilgrims here. We are living in an alien world. It’s alien to God. Alienated from God. And if you’re living a life in fellowship with God, you find yourself in an alien world. And we come into the sanctuary of God, but it should always be a place where God broadens our whole perspective. And I begin to measure things not by, “Oh, what a rough week,” but I begin to measure things by eternity. It won’t be long. Life is so short. I’ll soon be with Him in the glories of His kingdom. Oh, how fortunate I am to know Him. How fortunate I am that He loves me and He has chosen me as His child and I am going to dwell with Him forever and ever. You see, you get the long-term; you get released from this narrow little perspective that so often develops in the world. And the broadened perspective as we come into the sanctuary of God.
So Job now is talking from the narrow perspective. We often do this when we’re hurting, when we’re suffering. He’s looking at the wicked like the psalmist did and he sees their prosperity and it’s completely putting down the arguments of his friends. He is putting them down. They are not true. The things that they are saying are not true. The hypocrite isn’t cut off; the wicked aren’t cast aside. They oftentimes are very prosperous indeed and seem to have no problem at all. And this is what Job is pointing out as he shows the fallacy of the arguments that these men are giving to him.
Now Job begins to look down the road, verse Job 21:17 :
How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger. They are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away ( Job 21:17-18 ).
I wonder if, when David wrote the first Psalm, he was not acquainted with the book of Job. Do you remember what he said concerning the wicked? “Are not so, but as the chaff which the wind driveth away” ( Psa 1:4 ). And here he’s borrowing actually this phrase out of Job. David was probably very familiar with this book.
God lays up his iniquity for his children: he rewards him, and he shall know it. His eyes shall see his destruction, he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty ( Job 21:19-20 ).
Now Job said,
Are you going to teach God knowledge? seeing he judges those that are high. One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. His breasts are full of milk, his bones are moistened with marrow. Another dies in the bitterness of his soul, and never eats with pleasure ( Job 21:22-25 ).
Now why the difference? We don’t know. Why is it that some men die in fullness and some die in poverty? Some die in pain and sorrow. Some are cut off quickly. Why does that happen?
They shall lie down alike in the dust, the worms shall cover them. Behold, I know your thoughts, and devices which you wrongfully imagine against me. For you say, Where is the house of the prince? And where are the dwelling places of the wicked? Have you not asked them that go by the way? and do you not know their tokens ( Job 21:26-29 ),
He said, “You learned your philosophy from wayfarers, from strangers, from people in the streets.”
That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath ( Job 21:30 ).
In other words, God will judge them. That is true. But not necessarily in this life.
Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him for what he has done? Yet shall he be brought to the grave, he shall remain in his tomb. The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him. How then do you comfort me in vain, seeing in your answers there’s an inconsistency? ( Job 21:31-34 )
How can you comfort me with these kinds of arguments when they’re not really consistent? When they’re not really logical? When they don’t stand up to reality? “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Job 21:1-5
Introduction
Job 21
JOB’S SEVENTH DISCOURSE:
JOB’S REPLY TO ZOPHAR AND HIS OTHER FRIENDS
Job’s message here was directed particularly to Zophar; “And Job’s tone was so sharp that Zophar would not take part in the third cycle of dialogues.” “This speech is unusual for Job. It is the only one in which he confined his remarks to his friends and did not fall into either a soliloquy or a prayer. The time had now come for Job to demolish his friends arguments.” This he proceeded to do with sledge-hammer blows of truth and logic. “He attacked their position from every side; and, in the end, he left no line of their arguments unchallenged.”
The theological error of Job’s friends was simple enough. They believed that everyone in this life received exactly what he deserved. Righteous people were healthy and prosperous; the wicked suffered in illness, poverty and destitution. Supporting their foolish error was the truth that virtuous and godly lives indeed do, in many instances, tend toward blessings and happiness; and, conversely, wickedness tends in the opposite direction. Job’s friends, seeing his epic misfortunes, terrible financial reverses, and hopeless physical disease, applied their doctrine as positive and undeniable truth of Job’s gross wickedness. In the light of the real facts, Job labeled their “consolations” as outright falsehoods (Job 21:34).
When we compare Job’s position with that of his friends, “It is easy to see that both understandings are unrealistic extremes; and both betray a fundamental error.” What is that error? It is simply this that, “The rewards of either wickedness or righteousness are limited to what occurs in one’s earthly lifetime.”
Such an error is incompatible with God’s truth. As Paul put it, “If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable” (1Co 15:19). The unpredictably variable fortunes of both the righteous and the wicked in this life are the result of the following divinely-arranged circumstances of our earthly lives:
1.God provided that, “Time and chance happeneth to all men” (Ecc 9:11).
2.God endowed his human children with the freedom of the will.
3.Our great progenitors, Adam and Eve in Eden, elected to do the will of Satan, rather than the will of God. Satan’s invariable purpose has been the total destruction of all mankind; and the bringing in of such an enemy as `the god of this world’ has produced innumerable sorrows, even death itself. That, of course, is exactly what Adam and Eve did.
4.God cursed the ground (the earth) for Adam’s sake. The purpose of this action was that Adam’s posterity might never find their earthly existence to be free of natural impediments. Following the fall of mankind, God made it impossible for man ever to find his earthly life altogether comfortable. This not only explains the briars and thistles, but the floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, droughts, hurricanes and all other natural disasters. With a list of uncertainties like all of these things, it became a mathematical certainty that there would be unpredictable variations in the lives of all men, both of the wicked and of the righteous.
It is evident that Job had as little understanding of the whole picture’ of human suffering as did his friends. The glory of Job, however, is that in spite of everything he trusted God. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him” (Job 13:15).
Job 21:1-6
JOB CHALLENGES HIS FRIENDS TO HEAR HIM
“Then Job answered, and said,
Hear diligently my speech;
And let this be your consolations.
Suffer me, and I also will speak;
And after that I have spoken, mock on.
As for me, is my complaint to man?
And why should I not be impatient?
Mark me, and be astonished,
And lay your hand upon your mouth.
Even when I remember, I am troubled,
And horror taketh hold on my flesh.”
“Hear my speech … let this be your consolations … lay your hand on your mouth” (Job 21:2; Job 21:5). “Job is angered by his friends’ lack of sympathy. Instead of all that talk, their silence would have been better.” “They can keep on mocking him if they wish, for that is all that their `consolations’ amount to.”
“Is my complaint to man … why should I not be impatient” (Job 21:4)? Barnes gave the meaning of this. “It is not so much what you friends have said that troubles me, it is what God has done to me.”
“Mark me, and be astonished” (appalled) (Job 21:5). “What Job is about to say will astound his friends, because God’s government of the world is utterly different from what they say in their vain theorizing.”
“I am troubled, and horror takes hold on my flesh” (Job 21:6). The implications of these words apparently are: “As I am about to speak of the mysterious workings of Providence, I tremble at the thought of it; my very flesh trembles.” Barnes believed that Job here stated that, “His sufferings had overwhelmed him and filled him with horror, and that the very recollection of them caused his flesh to tremble.” Van Selms paraphrased the whole thought here as follows: “If you really took into account what has happened to me, you would realize that no words are of any help here; and you would be silent, just as you were at first. I myself do not know how I should interpret my fate; one’s soul and body shudder at the thought of God’s incomprehensible decrees.” In the light of these comments, it is apparent that we cannot be absolutely sure of what Job might have meant here. There could have been some suggestion of all of these interpretations.
E.M. Zerr:
Job 21:1-3. The friends seemed to get much satisfaction out of their talking. Job wanted to have some of the same kind of satisfaction or consolation. He requested them to listen to him for a while after which they might mock on if they wished.
Job 21:4. Job was not looking to man for justice, therefore man had no reason to interfere with his complaining.
Job 21:5. In view of the thought in the preceding verse, Job asked them to take notice of his condition and then keep still until he made his speech.
Job 21:6. At every notice that Job took of his condition he was filled with fear.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Here, as in the first cycle, Job answered not merely Zophar, but the whole argument. First of all, he set over against their statement and illustrations the fact patent to all that often the wicked are prosperous. This prosperity he described in detail. It is personal, they “live,” and “wax mighty.” It is continued to their children, who are established. It is manifest in their possessions, “their houses are safe.” Their increase is successful. It is seen in their habits, in the dance and the song, and the general circumstances of prosperity. It is evident in their death, for not through long suffering, but in a moment, they go down to Sheol. All this is true in spite of their godlessness. They have exiled God, have not sought His knowledge, have become agnostic, and have denied the benefit of prayer. This prosperity, Job declared, is not due to themselves. His inference is that God had bestowed it, and therefore had not punished the wicked as they have declared He does.
Continuing his answer, Job declared their philosophy to be wholly at fault by asking how often is it true that “the lamp of the wicked is put out.” He surmised that they might reply that the judgment falls upon their children, and repudiated such suggestion by declaring that the man who sins is the man who should be punished, and that God has no pleasure in the punishment of posterity. He ended his answer by addressing himself to them more personally. With a touch of satire he suggested that they had learned their philosophy from travelers, and declared their conclusions to be wrong. Therefore their attempted comfort was vain, seeing that their answers contained falsehood. Thus ends the second cycle.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Shall Any Teach God?
Job 21:1-34
After a brief introduction, in which he claims the right to reply, Job 21:1-6, Job brings forward a new argument. He affirms that his friends are wrong in assuming that the connection between sin and suffering is invariable. On the contrary, he urges that wicked men often spend their lives in prosperity, on the farm, in the fold, and in the home, Job 21:10-11. Sounds of joy issue from their dwellings, Job 21:12. They die without prolonged torture, Job 21:13. From the contention of his friends, Job turns to the passer-by for confirmation of his words. Surely, he says, it is a matter of common observation that some wicked men do prosper and die in peace, Job 21:29.
With Jobs answer the second colloquy ends. His friends have gained nothing by their arguments, but Job has learned much by his afflictions. On the dark background of his night the Morning Star has actually begun to shine. He appeals to God with greater confidence and even finds refuge in Him; but so far, though arguing his case, he has preserved a humble and reverent attitude.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Job 21:15
I. No man can hold the Christian view of God’s personality and dominion without his whole intellectual nature being ennobled. The finer and clearer our conceptions of the Divine idea, the nobler and stronger must be our intellectual bearing and capacity.
II. Not only is there ennoblement of the nature of a man as a whole by his acceptance of the Christian idea of the nature of God: there is a vital cleansing and purification of a man’s moral being; a new sensitiveness is given to his conscience; he goes directly to the absolute and final standard of righteousness; he knows the wrong, afar off and avoids it.
III. It is always profitable to base life upon religious faith. He who walks by sight only walks in a blind alley. Even in matters that are not distinctively religious, faith will be found the inspiration and strength of the most useful life. We cannot get rid of religion unless we first get rid of faith; and when we get rid of faith, we give up our birthright and go into slavery for ever.
Parker, City Temple, vol. iii., p. 73.
References: Job 21:15.-F. E. Paget, Helps and Hindrances to the Christian Life, vol. ii., p. 116; A. P. Peabody, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 330; D. G. Watt, Ibid., vol. xxiv., p. 70. Job 21:19.-Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 433. Job 21:23-26.-W. J. Keay. Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 285. Job 21:29-31.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 410. Job 21-S. Cox, Expositor, 1st series, vol. viii., p. 1; Ibid., Commentary on Job, p. 274. Job 22:5.-New Manual of Sunday-school Addresses, p. 105. Job 22:15-17.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 859; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 130.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 21 Jobs Reply
1. Hear my solemn words–then mock on (Job 21:1-6)
2. His testimony concerning the experiences of the wicked (Job 21:7-26)
3. Your answers are nothing but falsehoods (Job 21:27-34)
Job 21:1-6. This answer shows that Job gets the upper hand over his accusing friends in this controversy. In a masterly way he meets their arguments. He wants them to hear diligently, and if they choose, after he has spoken, they may mock on. He is not complaining to man, or making his appeal to these human friends. He begins to look for another helper, even to God.
Job 21:7-26. Zophars eloquent words concerning the wicked are taken up by Job and he proves that experience shows another side besides the one Zophar had made so prominent. The wicked often live to a ripe old age and possess great power. They have large families and their houses are safe from fear; nor is the chastening hand of God upon them. They prosper and all goes well with them; their cattle increase. They sing to the timbrel and to the harp and rejoice at the sound of the pipe. They love pleasure and have a good time. Then suddenly Job changeth the description. They spend their days in prosperity–but in a moment they go down to Sheol. It reminds us of Asaphs great Psalm (73) in which he describes the prosperity of the wicked: When I thought to know this it was too painful for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. Surely Thou didst set them in slippery places; Thou castedst them down to destruction.
Job declares they reject and defy God; they laugh at the thought of praying to Him. Then he gives his own, personal testimony the counsel of the wicked is far from me. In this he shows his friends that they are wrong in classing him with the wicked. Then he continues in unfolding the problem of the wicked and how God deals with them.
Job 21:27-34. Without enlarging upon the final statements of his answer, we only remark that Job shows that his friends have not only failed to convince him, but their answers are insincere and nothing but falsehoods. The victory is on his side; yet the problem, why do the righteous suffer and how can their suffering be harmonized with a righteous God, remains as unsolved as before.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Job 21:1. But Job answered and said It has been thought strange that Job should never resume the argument of a resurrection, which was so full of piety and conviction; but, when resuming the dispute with his friends, should stick to that he first set out with. Whether this be the case or not, we shall see in the course of our observations. But if it be, a very sufficient reason may be assigned for it. For, if one such appeal as this, made in the most solemn manner, would not convince them of his innocence, he had reason to think it would be much the same, if he had repeated it a second and a third time. He had, therefore, no other resource left, but to follow the argument with which he had begun; namely, to combat the false principle upon which they were so forward to condemn him: and this he does effectually throughout the present chapter, by showing that many wicked men live long and prosperously, and at last die in apparent peace, and are buried with great pomp; which shows that this life is not the proper state of retribution, but that men shall be judged and recompensed hereafter. See Peters and Dodd.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 21:2. Consolations. nicham, though mostly translated consolation, comfort &c., as in Isa 40:1; is in several places understood of a change of mind, or of repentance. So in Judges 21., when the people wept because one tribe was lacking in Israel; and when the Lord repented that he had made Saul king. 1Sa 15:35. So it should here be rendered, Job having endeavoured to bring his friends to a change of sentiment concerning his case.
Job 21:12. Rejoice at the sound of the organ, a species of wind instrument not now exactly known. Job keeps a princely patriarch fully in view, living in affluence like himself and his three friends.
Job 21:16. Lo, their food is not in their hand. Behold, their happiness is not in their power.SCHULTENS. Let the counsel of the wicked be far from me. God in a moment can extinguish their candle.
Job 21:21. What pleasure hath he in his house after him? chephzoo, designates business, or causing his family to do his pleasure after death. Then the sense is, Can he reign in the tomb by testamentary limitations?
Job 21:24. His breasts are full of milk. To ascribe full breasts to a male requires apology, which is not easy to make. Some critics translate mulctralia, his pails are full of milk; but that idea has no connection with his bones being moistened with marrow. The sense is, that his constitution is full of vigour and blooming health. Still the figure is left without support from any classical author.
Job 21:26. Worms shall cover them, alluding to hasty burials on a field of battle, where the vermin at once prey upon the slain.
Job 21:28. The house of the prince. The Dabib, or the Nabob: equivalent to the house of the powerful, the oppressor; for it is not doubted but Job meant the house of the wicked.
Job 21:33. The clods of the valley. The Goths buried their dead in burrows on the hills; but Virgil, neid 11., mentions a preference to vallies. The LXX read, the stones of the brook, while the Hebrew and the Chaldaic have, the glebe of the brook. Flesh in a box full of holes, interred under running water, is converted into spermaceti. It is not impossible that this modern discovery was known to the ancients.
REFLECTIONS.
Job rises stronger, while his friends grow weaker in the fight. Though an afflicted man here contends against three in health, yet he is more than competent to put them all to shame. He asks leave to speak, and then if they chose they might deride his words; for his complaint was not to man but to God. So the christian minister, wishing to come to an issue with obstinate sinners, solicits a fair hearing, and then leaves them to mock or revere his words.
Job, confident of his superiority, and perfectly aware that Zophar had but partially stated the truth, defeats him by a single stroke. Zophar, if all thy doctrine be true, wherefore do the wicked live, become old; yea, are mighty upon the earth? Their seed is established in the earth. Hence, not the destruction thou hast painted with the deepest shades, but the full tide of prosperity is their portion.
Job farther asserts, that many who thus prosper are not only very wicked, but wicked in principle, and impious by habit. They say to God, Depart from us; we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. Deifying themselves, they ask, What is the Almighty that we should serve him; and what profit should we have if we pray unto him? When those monsters condescend on some occasions to enter the temple of God, it is to pay a sort of civil homage to the supreme Majesty; and being destitute of the spirit of devotion, the service seems to them protracted and dull. They are not profited by approaching their Maker, though heaven opens to the prayers of the faithful, and overflows their hearts with every blessing of the new covenant.
Job, anxious to avoid the errors of his friends, in their partial and hasty views of providence, gave a fair statement of the case; that while one wicked man prospered, as above, the lamp of another was extinguished by a blast. Now we view him in the full blaze of prosperity; and scarcely have we removed our eyes before his light is gone out in obscurity, and nothing remains of all his glory but the offensive smoke of his crimes. One dies in his full strength, wholly at ease and quiet, while another expires in the bitterness of his soul, and both lie down together in the common dust. Hence all men are here cautioned against rash and hasty conclusions respecting providence. God alone can clear up the clouds which surround his counsels.
Thus God, in a temporal view, layeth up iniquity for the children of the wicked, when they imbibe the maxims of their father, and make no restitution of his unlawful gains. Hence we must purge ourselves as much from the sins of a father, as from the sins of a stranger.
Job closes his reply by an appropriate application of his doctrine. Behold, I know your thoughts, and the wrongs ye conceive against me. Ye ask where is the house of the prince; and ye tacitly mean my house. Ye see my affairs in ruins, but ye should acknowledge that I receive afflictions now; whereas strangers who pass on the high road would tell you that God has reserved hardened and impenitent men to the day of destruction. In this life they have a full tide of prosperity; it being difficult for justice to strike an offending father, without prematurely affecting his wife and children. Therefore, my friends, you do not comfort, but grieve me, seeing all your replies are founded on misconceptions of providence.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 21. Jobs Reply.Zophar was graphic and vigorous, but had nothing to say. Nevertheless his speech suggests to Job his next argument. The facts are quite the opposite of what Zophar has said: the wicked do not die prematurely. Is the doctrine of Providence true?
Job 21:1-6. Job invites the friends to listen in silence (Job 21:5) at the terrible truths he has to disclose (Job 21:6). In Job 21:4 read of man (mg.): the meaning is that Job complains of God.
Job 21:7-13. The prosperity of the godless. In Job 21:8 f. the descriptions are quite idyllic.
Job 21:14-22. Yet they renounced God: like the friends, they regarded religion from the point of view of profit and loss (Job 21:15), but with opposite results. It is best to treat Job 21:16 as an anticipated objection of the friends (as mg.). after all, the prosperity of the wicked is not in their own power. God will destroy it. Job 21:17 f. will then be Jobs reply. Job 21:19 a again must be given to the friends, Job 21:19 b is Jobs reply. The dogma that a man is punished in his children only means that he goes scot free. In ancient Israel the idea of corporate personality made the man and his descendants so closely one, that the punishment of the one was the punishment of the other. But from the Exile onward, a growing individualism made this doctrine seem unsatisfactory (Jer 31:29, Eze 3:16-21; Eze 18:1-32). In Job 21:21 what pleasure means what concern.
Job 21:22. The friends profess to know Gods dealings better than He appears to do Himself, though He is the judge of the angels.
Job 21:23-26. How God actually governs. The lot of men differs, but at last all alike die.
Job 21:27-34. Job understands the insinuations of the friends (Job 21:27). He appeals to the testimony of travellers (Job 21:29). The wicked is spared in the day of calamity and led away in the day of wrath (trans, as mg. though it involves slight alteration). In Job 21:31 Job speaks: Who will rebuke the wicked? He rests peacefully in the grave and has innumerable imitators (Job 21:32 f.). In Job 21:32 if we translate as text, the meaning is that the dead mans effigy watches over his tomb, if as mg. that precautions are taken against desecration.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
JOB SILENCES ZOPHAR
(vv.1-34).
The callous cruelty of Zophar’s speech would surely cause some men to be bitterly angry, but while Job was incensed by such treatment, he did not lose his temper. He was well in control of himself in spite of so deeply feeling the anguish of his sufferings as well as the unfeeling criticism of his friends. After Job’s speaking in this chapter, Zophar has nothing more to say.
THE SOLEMNITY OF DEALING WITH GOD
(vv.1-16)
Rather than replying in the same controversial spirit that his friends had used, Job calmly appeals to them to consider carefully what he is saying. The fact that he controlled himself as he did ought to have impressed them sufficiently to at least give him some serious consideration. He asked them to bear with him in his speaking to them, and after he has had his say, to continue their mocking (vv.2-3). He had little hope that they would change their minds, no matter how solemnly he speaks.
He asks them, “Is my complaint against man?” Actually, his complaint was against the way God was dealing with him. But if they thought it was against man, then why should he not be impatient? (v.4). If it were men who were causing his suffering he would have had plenty of reason to complain. But it was God who was dealing with him. Were they really considering this fact? “Look at me,” he says, “and be astonished, put your hand over your mouth” (v.5). They might well keep quiet, for they were not answering for God, the God who had allowed (or caused) him to be terrified and trembling (v.6). If they had been really concerned for Job, could they not have prayed to God as to how to be of help to the poor sufferer? Probably they never thought of praying for him because they were sure they had the right answers for God without need of prayer.
WHY DO THE WICKED PROSPER?
(vv.7-16)
Zophar had spoken of the wicked being cut off, but Job has questions now that Zophar does not even attempt to answer. Sometimes wicked men are cut off, but some wicked men live and become old and become mighty in power above others (v.7). Why? Their children often get along well with hardly a setback (v.8). They seem to have nothing to fear and the discipline of God’s government seems not to apply to them (v.9). “Their bull breeds without failure; their cow calves without miscarriage” (v.10), while often the righteous find just the opposite experience. Their children enjoy life with its music and dancing, spending their days in wealth, “and in a moment go down to the grave” (vv.11-12). In other words, they know nothing of the painful experiences of Job all through their life, then die without suffering. Asaph observed this also, as he records in Psa 73:3-9, and added in verses 16-17, “It was too painful for me – until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end.” He learned that God’s accounts are not settled in this life: there is a future to be considered.
At present, such wicked men can boldly say to God, “Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways. Who is the Almighty that we should serve Him?” (vv.14-15). Can we imagine that God is indulgent with such an attitude? Certainly not! He shows marvellous patience, but this does not mean indifference. Those who defy God are in a far more dangerous condition that they realise, and future judgment is infinitely more terrible than Job’s few years of suffering. They consider they have no profit in praying to God. Such is the self-centred pride of man! Their object is present advantage, but in ignorance they do not realise that even in this life they may find great profit in depending on God’s grace.
They may think their prosperity is in their own hands, that they have only themselves to thank for this. How false indeed! God is the Giver of every temporal thing as well as spiritual. But men do not give God the credit due to Him (v.16). No wonder Job says, “The counsel of the wicked is far from me.”
THE CHILDREN OF THE WICKED
(vv.17-21)
Job asks, “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?” It is certainly not always the case in this life, in fact it is not often the case (v.17). Sometimes, in an aggravated case, destruction might overtake them, but not often. They may be like straw or chaff before the wind, and therefore carried away eventually by death, but present judgment does not seem to be often carried out (v.18). It may be rightly said, however, that “God lays up one’s iniquity for his children,” that is, that the children may afterward suffer for their fathers’ sins, as Exo 34:7 indicates, speaking of God “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and fourth generation.” This is certainly a warning to parents that their children will suffer the consequences of their parents’ wickedness. God knows how to mete out recompense in an appropriate way (v.19).
Eventually the eyes of the wicked will see his own destruction, and he will drink the wrath of God, but it is a sad comment, “what does he care about his household after him?” Such is the callous selfishness always attending a course of wickedness. Though the number of his months is cut in half, this makes no difference to him (v.21).
CONTRARY EXPERIENCES
(vv.22-26)
How foolish one is to suppose that he can teach God knowledge (v.22), since He judges those on high just as He does the lowest. Among the wicked there is such disparity that it is folly to think of judging by their experiences. Why? Because “one dies in his full strength, being wholly at rest and secure” (v.23). His possessions are kept intact and his health remains good until he dies (v.24). On the other hand, another wicked man dies in bitterness, his entire life having been deeply unpleasant. At the end “they lie down alike in the dust,” that is, the end of the one is the same as the other, though their lives on earth were contrary. Who can possibly answer why? Zophar thought he had the answer to Job’s troubles, but he had not considered this disparity with which Job faced him. Certainly the answer to all such questions must remain until after death.
JOB CHALLENGES HIS FRIENDS
(vv.27-31)
Job strongly takes the offensive in this section. He discerns the schemes by which his friends would wrong him (v.27). For they asked, “where is the house of the prince?” – as much as to say that a person of princely character would not be reduced to dwell in the misery that Job was bearing (v.28). They thought that the dwelling place of the wicked corresponded to Job’s circumstances. Had they not asked those who travelled the road of varied and contrary circumstances what was the reason for their disparity? (v.29).
Then Job speaks of what his friends had entirely missed, that is, the judgment of the future. “For the wicked are spared for the day of doom” (v.30). “Spared” is the proper translation here, indicating that God now spares them trouble in view of a later “day of doom.” Though allowed to hide from present recompense, they will be brought out in the day of God’s wrath.
Job then asks, “Who condemns his way to his face? and who repays him for what he has done?” (v.32). Job’s friends were condemning him to his face, but there is only one answer to the two questions he asks. Only God has the right to condemn. Only God will recompense man’s sin.
THE END IN DEATH
(vv.32-33)
At least in death the end of a wicked man’s prosperity is reached: he is brought down to the grave (v.32). His burial may be with a vigil and outward display of great honour. Large numbers may follow his coffin to the grave with such pomp and ceremony that is really only a mockery since he has actually “died without mercy. “
HIS CONCLUSION
(v.34)
Job’s friends certainly did not think that Job’s end would be with such fanfare, but many of the wicked would end in this way. Therefore Job could rightly ask them, “How then can you comfort me with empty words, since falsehood remains in your answers?” They had compared Job to the wicked, but not to the wicked who prospered in the world: the fact of the wicked prospering they had not even considered.
At this point Job has clearly won the argument, so that the replies of Eliphaz and Bildad, while couched in impressive language, are practically empty. Eliphaz is totally unfair in his response, and Bildad’s response is both brief and weak. Zophar is silenced, while Job afterward speaks with unabated vigour for six chapters.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
6. Job’s second reply to Zophar ch. 21
After the first cycle of speeches, Job responded to a point each of his friends had made, namely, that God consistently blesses the righteous and blasts the unrighteous. After this second cycle of speeches, Job again replied to a point each accuser had made: that the wicked suffer destruction in this life.
"This speech is unusual for Job on several counts. It is the only one in which he confines his remarks to his friends and does not fall into either a soliloquy or a prayer. The time has come to demolish their position. Secondly, in making this counter-attack, Job reviews a lot of the preceding discussion, so that many cross-references can be found to what has already been said. These are a valuable guide to interpretation when they can be discovered. Thirdly, by quoting their words and refuting them, Job comes nearer to formal debate. While his words are still quite emotional, there is less invective in them." [Note: Andersen, p. 198.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Job’s request to be heard 21:1-6
The best consolation his friends could have provided was to listen quietly to Job’s reply. So Job requested this (Job 21:2). He reminded his companions that his complaint was with God, not people. He was impatient because God would not reply.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
XVIII.
ARE THE WAYS OF THE LORD EQUAL?
Job 21:1-34
Job SPEAKS
WITH less of personal distress and a more collected mind than before Job begins a reply to Zophar. His brave hope of vindication has fortified his soul and is not without effect upon his bodily state. The quietness of tone in this final address of the second colloquy contrasts with his former agitation and the growing eagerness of the friends to convict him of wrong. True, he has still to speak of facts of human life troublous and inscrutable. Where they lie he must look, and terror seizes him, as if he moved on the edge of chaos. It is, however, no longer his own controversy with God that disquiets him. For the time he is able to leave that to the day of revelation. But seeing a vaster field in which righteousness must be revealed, he compels himself, as it were, to face the difficulties which are encountered in that survey. The friends have throughout the colloquy presented in varying pictures the offensiveness of the wicked man and his sure destruction. Job, extending his view over the field they have professed to search, sees the facts in another light. While his statement is in the way of a direct negative to Zophars theory, he has to point out what seems dreadful injustice in the providence of God. He is not, however, drawn anew into the tone of revolt.
The opening words are as usual expostulatory, but with a ring of vigour. Job sets the arguments of his friends aside and the only demand he makes now is for their attention.
“Hear diligently my speech,
And let that be your consolations.
Suffer me that I may speak;
And after I have spoken, mock on.
As for me, is my complaint of man?
And why should I not be impatient?”
What he has said hitherto has had little effect upon them; what he is to say may have none. But he will speak; and afterwards, if Zophar finds that he can maintain his theory, why, he must keep to it and mock on. At present the speaker is in the mood of disdaining false judgment. He quite understands the conclusion come to by the friends. They have succeeded in wounding him time after time. But what presses upon his mind is the state of the world as it really is. Another impatience than of human falsehood urges him to speak. He has returned upon the riddle of life he gave Zophar to read-why the tents of robbers prosper and they that provoke God are secure. {Job 12:6} Suppose the three let him alone for a while and consider the question largely, in its whole scope. They shall consider it, for, certainly, the robber chief may be seen here and there in full swing of success, with his children about him, gaily enjoying the fruit of sin, and as fearless as if the Almighty were his special protector. Here is something that needs clearing up. Is it not enough to make a strong man shake?
Mark me, and be astonished,
And lay the hand upon the mouth.
Even while I remember I am troubled,
And trembling taketh hold of my flesh-
Wherefore do the wicked live,
Become old, yea wax mighty in power?
Their seed is settled with them in their sight,
And their offspring before their eyes;
Their houses are in peace, without fear,
And the rod of God is not upon them
They send forth their little ones like a flock,
And their children dance;
They sing to the timbrel and lute,
And rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
They spend their days in ease,
And in a moment go down to Sheol.
Yet they said to God, Depart from us,
For we desire not to know Thy ways.
What is Shaddai that we should serve Him?
And what profit should we have if we pray unto Him?
Contrast the picture here with those which Bildad and Zophar painted-and where lies the truth? Sufficiently on Jobs side to make one who is profoundly interested in the question of Divine righteousness stand appalled. There was an error of judgment inseparable from that early stage of human education in which vigour and the gains of vigour counted for more than goodness and the gains of goodness, and this error clouding the thought of Job made him tremble for his faith. Is nature Gods? Does God arrange the affairs of this world? Why then, under His rule, can the godless have enjoyment, and those who deride the Almighty feast on the fat things of His earth? Job has sent into the future a single penetrating look. He has seen the possibility of Vindication, but not the certainty of retribution. The underworld into which the evildoer descends in a moment; without protracted misery, appears to Job no hell of torment. It is a region of reduced, incomplete existence, not of penalty. The very clearness with which he Saw vindication for himself, that is, for the good man, makes it needful to see the wrong doer judged and openly condemned. Where then shall this be done? The writer, with all his genius, could only throw one vivid gleam beyond the present. He could not frame a new idea of Sheol, nor, passing its cloud confines, reach the thought of personality continuing in acute sensations either of joy or pain. The ungodly ought to feel the heavy hand of Divine justice in the present state of being. But he does not. Nature makes room for him and his children, for their gay dances and lifelong hilarity. Heaven does not frown. “The wicked live, become old, yea, wax mighty in power; their houses are in peace, without fear.”
From the climax of chapter 19, the speeches of Job seem to fall away instead of advancing. The author had one brilliant journey into the unseen, but the peak he reached could not be made a new point of departure. Knowledge he did not possess was now required. He saw before him a pathless ocean where no man had shown the way, and inspiration seems to have failed him. His power lay in remarkably keen analysis and criticism of known theological positions and in glowing poetic sense. His inspiration working through these persuaded him that everywhere God is the Holy and True. It is scarcely to be supposed that condemnation of the evil could have seemed to him of less importance than vindication of the good. Our conclusion therefore must be that a firm advance into the other life was not for genius like his, nor for human genius at its highest. One more than man must speak of the great judgment and what lies beyond.
Clearly Job sees the unsolved enigma of the godless mans prosperous life, states it, and stands trembling. Regarding it what have other thinkers said? “If the law of all creation were justice,” says John Stuart Mill, “and the Creator omnipotent, then in whatever amount suffering and happiness might be dispensed to the world, each persons share of them would be exactly proportioned to that persons good or evil deeds; no human being would have a worse lot than another without worse deserts; accident or favouritism would have no part in such a world, but every human life would be the playing out of a drama constructed like a perfect moral tale. No one is able to blind himself to the fact that the world we live in is totally different from this.” Emerson, again, facing this problem, repudiates the doctrine that judgment is not executed in this world. He affirms that there is a fallacy in the concession that the bad are successful, that justice is not done now. “Every ingenuous and aspiring soul,” he says, “leaves the doctrine behind him in his own experience; and all men feel sometimes the falsehood which they cannot demonstrate.” His theory is that there is balance or compensation everywhere. “Life invests itself with inevitable conditions, which the unwise seek to dodge, which one and another brags that he does not know, that they do not touch him; -but the brag is on his lips, the conditions are in his soul. If he escapes them in one part, they attack him in another more vital part. The ingenuity of man has always been dedicated to the solution of one problem, how to detach the sensual sweet, the sensual strong, the sensual bright, from the moral sweet, the moral deep, the moral fair; that is, again, to contrive to cut clean off this upper surface so thin as to leave it bottomless; to get a one end, without an other end. This dividing and detaching is steadily counteracted. Pleasure is taken out of pleasant things, profit out of profitable things, power out of strong things, so soon as we seek to separate them from the whole. We can no more halve things and get the sensual good, by itself, than we can get an inside that shall have no outside, or a light without a shadow. For everything you have missed you have gained something else, and for everything you gain you lose something. If the gatherer gathers too much, nature takes out of the man what she puts into his chest; swells the estate but kills the owner. We feel defrauded of the retribution due to evil acts, because the criminal adheres to his vice and contumacy, and does not come to a crisis or judgment anywhere in visible nature. There is no stunning confutation of his nonsense before men and angels. Has he therefore outwitted the law? Inasmuch as he carries the malignity and the lie with him, he so far deceases from nature. In some manner there will be a demonstration of the wrong to the understanding also; but, should we not see it, this deadly deduction makes square the account.” The argument reaches far beneath that superficial condemnation of the order of providence which disfigures Mr. Mills essay on Nature. So far as it goes, it illuminates the present stage of human existence. The light, however, is not sufficient, for we cannot consent to the theory that in an ideal scheme, a perfect or eternal state, he who would have holiness must sacrifice power, and he who would be true must be content to be despised. There is, we cannot doubt, a higher law; for this does not in any sense apply to the life of God Himself. In the discipline which prepares for liberty, there must be restraints and limitations, gain-that is, development-by renunciation; earthly ends must be subordinated to spiritual; sacrifices must be made. But the present state does not exhaust the possibilities of development nor close the history of man. There is a kingdom out of which shall be taken all things that offend. To Emersons compensations must be added the compensation of Heaven. Still he lifts the problem out of the deep darkness which troubled Job.
And with respect to the high position and success bad men are allowed to enjoy, another writer, Bushnell, well points out that permission of their opulence and power by God aids the development of moral ideas. “It is simply letting society and man be what they are, to show what they are.” The retributive stroke, swift and visible, is not needed to declare this: “If one is hard upon the poor, harsh to children, he makes, or may, a very great discovery of himself. What is in him is mirrored forth by his acts, and distinctly mirrored in them. If he is unjust, passionate, severe, revengeful, jealous, dishonest, and supremely selfish, he is in just that scale of society or social relationship that brings him out to himself. Evil is scarcely to be known as evil till it takes the condition of authority.” We do not understand it till we see what kind of god it will make, and by what sort of rule it will manage its empire. Just here all the merit of Gods plan, as regards the permission of power in the hands of wicked men, will be found to hinge; namely, on the fact that evil is not only revealed in its baleful presence and agency, but the peoples and ages are put heaving against it and struggling after deliverance “from it.” It was, we say, Jobs difficulty that against the new conception of Divine righteousness which he sought the early idea stood opposed that life meant vigour mainly in the earthly range. During a long period of the worlds history this belief was dominant, and virtue signified the strength of mans arm, his courage in conflict, rather than his truth in judgment and his purity of heart. The outward gains corresponding to that early virtue were the proof of the worth of life. And even when the moral qualities began to be esteemed, and a man was partly measured by the quality of his soul, still the tests of outward success and the gains of the inferior virtue continued to be applied to his life. Hence the perturbation of Job and, to some extent, the false judgment of providence quoted from a modern writer.
But the chapter we are considering shows, if we rightly interpret the obscure 16th verse (Job 21:16), that the author tried to get beyond the merely sensuous and earthly reckoning. Those prospered who denied the authority of God and put aside religion with the rudest scepticism. There was no good in prayer, they said; it brought no gain. The Almighty was nothing to them. Without thought of His commands they sought their profit and their pleasure, and found all they desired. Looking steadfastly at their life, Job sees its hollowness, and abruptly exclaims:-
“Ha! their good is not in their hand:
The counsel of the wicked be far from me!”
Good! was that good which they grasped-their abundance, their treasure? Were they to be called blessed because their children danced to the lute and the pipe and they enjoyed the best earth could provide? The real good of life was not theirs. They had not God; they had not the exultation of trusting and serving Him; they had not the good conscience towards God and man which is the crown of life. The man lying in disease and shame would not exchange his lot for theirs.
But Job must argue still against his friends belief that the wicked are visited with the judgment of the Most High in the loss of their earthly possessions. “The triumphing of the wicked is short,” said Zophar, “and the joy of the godless but for a moment.” Is it so?
“How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
That their calamity cometh upon them?
That God distributeth sorrows in His anger?
That they are as stubble before the wind,
And as chaff that the storm carrieth away?”
One in a thousand, Job may admit, has the light extinguished in his tent and is swept out of the world. But is it the rule or the exception that such visible judgment falls even on the robber chief? The first psalm has it that the wicked are “like the chaff which the wind driveth away.” The words of that chant may have been in the mind of the author. If so, he disputes the doctrine. And further he rejects with contempt the idea that though a transgressor himself lives long and enjoys to the end, his children after him may bear his punishment.
“Ye say, God layeth up his iniquity for his children.
Let Him recompense it unto himself, that he may know it.
Let his own eye see his destruction,
And let him drink of the wrath of Shaddai.
For what pleasure hath he in his house after him,
When the number of his moons is cut off in the midst?”
The righteousness Job is in quest of will not be satisfied with visitation of the iniquities of the fathers upon the children. He will not accept the proverb which Ezekiel afterwards repudiated, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, the childrens teeth are set on edge.” He demands that the ways of God shall be equal, that the soul that sinneth shall bear its punishment. Is it anything to a wicked man that his Children are scattered and have to beg their bread when he has passed away? A man grossly selfish would not be vexed by the affliction of his family even if, down in Sheol, he could know of it. What Zophar has to prove is that every man who has lived a godless life is made to drink the cup of Shaddais indignation. Though he trembles in sight of the truth, Job will press it on those who argue falsely for God.
And with the sense of the inscrutable purposes of the Most High burdening his soul he proceeds-
“Shall any teach God knowledge?
Seeing He judgeth those that are high?”
Easy was it to insist that thus or thus Divine providence ordained. But the order of things established by God is not to be forced into harmony with a human scheme of judgment. He who rules in the heights of heaven knows how to deal with men on earth; and for them to teach Him knowledge is at once arrogant and absurd. The facts are evident, must be accepted and reckoned with in all submission; especially must his friends consider the fact of death, how death comes, and they will then find themselves unable to declare the law of the Divine government.
As yet, even to Job, though he has gazed beyond death, its mystery is oppressive; and he is right in urging that mystery upon his friends to convict them of ignorance and presumption. Distinctions they affirm to lie between the good and the wicked are not made by God in appointing the hour of death. One is called away in his strong and lusty manhood; another lingers till life becomes bitter and all the bodily functions are impaired. “Alike they lie down in the dust and the worms cover them.” The thought is full of suggestion; but Job presses on, returning for a moment to the false charges against himself that he may bring a final argument to bear on his accusers.
Behold, I know your thoughts,
And the devices ye wrongfully imagine against me.
For ye say, Where is the house of the prince?
And, Where the tents in which the wicked dwelt?
Have ye not asked them that go by the way?
And do ye not regard their tokens-
That the wicked is spared in the day of destruction,
That they are led forth in the day of wrath?
So far from being overwhelmed in calamity the evildoer is considered, saved as by an unseen hand. Whose hand? My house is wasted, my habitations are desolate, I am in extremity, ready to die. True: but those who go up and down the land would teach you to look for a different end to my career if I had been the proud transgressor you wrongly assume me to have been. I would have found a way of safety when the storm clouds gathered and the fire of heaven burned. My prosperity would scarcely have been interrupted. If I had been what you say, not one of you would have dared to charge me with crimes against men or impiety towards God. You would have been trembling now before me. The power of an unscrupulous man is not easily broken. He faces fate, braves and overcomes the judgment of society.
And society accepts his estimate of himself, counts him happy, pays him honour at his death. The scene at his funeral confutes the specious interpretation of providence that has been so often used as a weapon against Job. Perhaps Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar know something of obsequies paid to a prosperous tyrant, so powerful that they dared not deny him homage even when he lay on his bier. Who shall repay the evildoer what he hath done?
“Yea, he is borne to the grave,
And they keep watch over his tomb;
The clods of the valley are sweet to him,
And all men draw after him,
As without number they go before him.”
It is the gathering of a countryside, the tumultuous procession, a vast disorderly crowd before the bier, a multitude after it surging along to the place of tombs. And there, in natures greenest heart, where the clods of the valley are sweet, they make his grave-and there as over the dust of one of the honourable of the earth they keep watch. Too true is the picture. Power begets fear and fear enforces respect. With tears and lamentations the Arabs went, with all the trappings of formal grief moderns may be seen in crowds following the corpse of one who had neither a fine soul nor a good heart, nothing but money and success to commend him to his fellow men.
So the writer ends the second act of the drama, and the controversy remains much where it was. The meaning of calamity, the nature of the Divine government of the world are not extracted. This only is made clear, that the opinion maintained by the three friends cannot stand. It is not true that joy and wealth are the rewards of virtuous life. It is not always the case that the evildoer is overcome by temporal disaster. It is true that to good and bad alike death is appointed, and together they lie down in the dust. It is true that even then the good mans grave may be forsaken in the desert, while the impious may have a stately sepulchre. A new way is made for human thought in the exposure of the old illusions and the opening up of the facts of existence. Hebrew religion has a fresh point of departure, a clearer view of the nature and end of all things. The thought of the world receives a spiritual germ; there is a making ready for Him who said, “A mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth,” and “What doth it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?” When we know what the earthly cannot do for us we are prepared for the gospel of the spiritual and for the living word.