Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 21:13
They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.
13. in wealth ] i. e. weal, prosperity. The word has not here its modern meaning of riches, but its older, more general sense: “in all time of our tribulation, in all time of our wealth good Lord deliver us.” The Litany.
to the grave ] Heb., to Sheol. They die in a moment without pain there are no bands in their death, Psa 73:4. This idyllic picture of a joyous untroubled life, rich in possessions and filled with all that gives a charm to existence, and having a peaceful close, forms the counterpart to the picture drawn by the friends of the troubled conscience, Job 15:20, the early death, Job 20:11, the childless solitariness, Job 18:19, and the disastrous end, Job 20:24, of the wicked man.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They spend their days in wealth – Margin, or, mirth. Literally, they wear out their days in good – batob. Vulgate in bonis. Septuagint, en agathois – in good things; in the enjoyment of good. They are not oppressed with the evils of poverty and want, but they have abundance of the good things of life.
And in a moment go down to the grave – Hebrew to she‘ol – but here meaning evidently the grave. The idea is, that when they die they are not afflicted with lingering disease, and great bodily pain, but having lived to an old age in the midst of comforts, they drop off suddenly and quietly, and sleep in the grave. God gives them prosperity while they live, and when they come to die he does not come forth with the severe expressions of his displeasure, and oppress them with long and lingering sickness. The author of Ps. 73 had a view of the death of the wicked remarkably similar to this, when he said,
For I was envious at the foolish,
When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For there are no bands in their death,
But their strength is firm. Psa 73:3-4.
All that Job says here is predicated on the supposition that such a sudden removal is preferable to death accompanied with long and lingering illness. The idea is, that it is in itself desirable to live in tranquility; to reach an honorable old age surrounded by children and friends, and then quietly and suddenly to drop into the grave without being a burden to friends. The wicked, he says, often live such a life, and he infers, therefore, that it is not a fact that God deals with people according to their character in this life, and that it is not right to draw an inference respecting their moral character from his dealings with them in this world. There are instances enough occurring in every age like those supposed here by Job, to justify the conclusion which he draws.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 21:13
And in a moment go down to the grave.
Things contingent upon a moment
Whatever begins, begins in a moment, and whatever ends, ends in a moment. Thoughts and purposes are formed in a moment–plans contemplated for years are decided in a moment–instantaneously. In so short a space everything comes to life and expires. In a moment we plant seed which takes centuries to grow, but which, in a moment only, the storm may cast down to the ground. The lightning may, in a moment, blast the work of a thousand years. A mans character may be ruined in a moment. In a little space of time it begins to go down. Break the law of gravitation, and crash would go creation. Job is moralising thus with his friends, and it seems to him strange that one event befalls the righteous and the wicked. It is a quick text, and has a sudden termination.
1. Life is a very little thing. It may be crushed as we would crush an eggshell. It need not take an hour to strike the blow which shall shiver it. Indeed, the wonder is that with such a little thing we live at all, for death is lurking all around us–the destructive forces so thick, that it seems as if the earth was made of nothing else. The pestilence rings at no mans door to toll of its coming, but it comes suddenly, and sweeps hundreds of men into the tomb. We stand on the graves brink every day.
2. Some men think death to be a long way off when the precipice is right at their side, and they are liable to fall into it at any moment. The young are not more free from the enemies of destruction than their parents. The great and the small, the good and the evil, are taken away in a moment. What is to rescue us from deaths dominion? Moses on Pisgahs top might plead that he was but 120 years old, that his eye was not dim, that he greatly desired to enter the promised land, but the plea was too weak, and he laid him down there on the top of the Mount. The man of business may plead that he is young and healthy, and his plans not yet accomplished; but death is inexorable, and he bows his head and gives up the ghost. Charles I and Marie Antoinette might plead their royal blood, or the popular will in their exaltation, but the executioners axe severed their heads and their excuses in a moment. Death cares for none of these things.
3. How suddenly, too, his arrows fly. Like that night in Egypt, when suddenly at midnight the gleam of the destroying angels sword was seen in the darkness, and, in a moment, the firstborn of all that land passed from life to death. The kings son and the chained captive lie side by side in deaths embrace, and a kingdom is in tears. How sudden the exit of Dickens, Thackeray, and others, hurried off ere their last chapter was written and last page dried. And sometimes death aggravates his work, and takes thousands on the battlefield, and hacks and tears them o pieces; or, on the steamer, burns and scalds their flesh from their bones. Learn from destructive forces being near not to tempt Providence by carelessness and negligence. A great deal is sot down to Providence which should be set down to ourselves. And let us be always ready, since but a step between us and the grave! (Anon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. They spend their days in wealth] There is a various reading here of some importance. In the text we have yeballu, they grow old, or wear out as with old age, terent vetustate; and in the margin, yechallu, they consume; and the Masora states that this is one of the eleven words which are written with beth and must be read with caph. Several editions have the former word in the text, and the latter in the margin; the former being what is called the kethib, the latter keri. yeballu, they grow old, or wear out, is the reading of the Antwerp, Paris, and London Polyglots; yechallu, they accomplish or spend, is the reading of the Complutensian Polyglot, thirteen of Kennicott’s and De Rossi’s MSS., the Septuagint, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. The Vulgate has ducunt, “they lead or spend,” from which our translation is borrowed. I incline to the former, as Job’s argument derives considerable strength from this circumstance; they not only spend their days in faring sumptuously every day; but they even wear out so as to grow old in it; they are not cut off by any sudden judgment of God. This is fact; therefore your doctrine, that the wicked are cut off suddenly and have but a short time, is far from the truth.
In a moment go down to the grave.] They wear out their years in pleasure; grow old in their gay and giddy life; and die, as in a moment, without previous sickness; or, as Mr. Good has it, They quietly descend into the grave.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In wealth; in good, i.e. in the enjoyment of all the good things of this life, without any mixture of evil. They do not die of a lingering and tormenting disease, as I now and many other good men die, but suddenly and sweetly, like lambs; as is usually said in such cases.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. wealthOld EnglishVersion for “prosperity.”
in a momentnot by alingering disease. Great blessings! Lengthened life with prosperity,and a sudden painless death (Ps73:4).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They spend their days in wealth,…. Or “in good” p; not in the performance of good works, or in the exercise of that which is spiritually good; or in seeking after spiritual good things, or eternal happiness; but in earthly good, in the enjoyment of the temporal good things of this life, and which to enjoy in a moderate and becoming manner is not criminal, but commendable; but these men, and such as they, seek no other good but worldly good; their language is, “who will show us any good?” Ps 4:6; any outward good; the way to get it, how to come at it, and be put in the possession of it: such place all their happiness in such sort of good, and spend all their time either in getting it, or in enjoying it, and in nothing else; not in spiritual exercises, in prayer, or praise, in their own houses, in private; nor in an attendance on the worship of God in public; it denotes also their continuance in prosperity unto the end of their days; for there is a various reading; we follow the Keri or margin, but the “Cetib”, or writing, is, “they become old” q; in wealth, or good things, and which is followed by many; they live all their days in the midst of wealth and riches, and die in such circumstances, contrary to what Zophar had asserted in Job 20:5;
and in a moment go down to the grave; the house appointed for all living, man’s long home, into which he is said to go down, because let down and interred in the earth; hither wicked men must come, after all their wealth, riches, prosperity, and pleasure; and hither they descend “in a moment”; suddenly, no previous change being made in their outward circumstances; and without any presage or forenotice of it, without any lingering disease and sickness leading on to it, there being no bands in their death, nothing to hinder and restrain from dying; but they drop at once into the grave, without sickness or pain: or “in rest”, or “quietly” r; being wholly at ease and quiet, as in Job 21:23; not only free from acute pains and grievous distempers, as burning fevers, and violent tortures, and racks of the stone, and other distressing disorders; but without any distress of mind, ignorant of their state and condition, and unconcerned about it; as they are at ease from their youth, and settled on their lees, they remain so, and go out of the world in like manner; and as sheep are laid in the grave, die senseless and stupid, having no thought in their last moments what will become of them in another world: some render it, “they go down to hell” s; the state and place of the wicked after death; which, though true, seems not so agreeable to Job’s scope and design, which is not to describe the punishment of the wicked, but their easy circumstances in life and in death; and so the Jewish commentators generally understand it. Aben Ezra’s note is,
“in a moment, without afflictions;”
Jarchi,
“quietly, without chastisements;”
and Bar Tzemach,
“without evil diseases;”
having nothing to distress them in body or mind, when many a good man lies long on a bed of languishing, tortured with diseases, chastened with sore pain, and his life gradually draws near to the grave, and to the destroyers.
p “in bono”, Pagninus, Montanus, Junius Tremellius, c. q “vetustate terent”, Montanus “veterascunt”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus “vetusti fiunt”, Cocceius “ad senectam deterunt”, Schultens. r “quiete”, Pagninus; “in quiete”, Vatablus. s “ad inferna”, V. L. “ad infernum”, Cocceius; “in infernum”, Schmidt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(13) In a moment.They go down to death without being made to feel the lingering tortures that Job had to undergo.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Spend their days They wear out make the most of life. “In connexion with this, one thinks of a coat which is not laid aside until it isentirely worn out.” Delitzsch.
Wealth Septuagint, good things. Dives also had his “good things.” The life and burial of Dives have several points in common with Job’s description of the wicked rich man.
In a moment Their lot brings no grievous protracted sickness “there are no bands in their death.” Having no idea of repentance, and no sense of eternal things, they evidently esteemed sudden death desirable. Suetonius tells us that Augustus Caesar expired suddenly, dying a very easy death, and such as he himself had always wished for. (xcix.)
The grave Sheol.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 21:13 They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.
Ver. 13. They spend their days in wealth ] Or, in mirth. Heb. In good. They wallow in wealth, and have the world at their will, even more than heart could wish, as David phraseth it in Psa 73:2-12 , which may well serve for a comment upon this text; and the rich glutton for an instance. He in his lifetime received good things, and in a moment went down to the grave, Luk 16:25 . True it is, that this is not every wicked man’s case; for some of them live wretchedly and die lamentably, being held long upon the rack of a torturing disease (as Jehoram), all which is to them none other than a type and foretaste of hell, whither they are hastening.
And in a moment they go down to the grave
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
go down = get dashed.
the grave. Hebrew. Sheol. App-35.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
grave
Heb. “Sheol,” (See Scofield “Hab 2:5”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
They: Job 36:11, Psa 73:4, Mat 24:38, Mat 24:39, Luk 12:19, Luk 12:20, Luk 17:28, Luk 17:29
wealth: or, mirth
Reciprocal: Jdg 20:34 – knew not Psa 49:14 – they Luk 15:13 – and took Luk 16:22 – the rich Luk 16:25 – thy good
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 21:13. They spend their days in wealth Hebrews , batob, in good: , LXX., in good things: in deliciis, in delights, Arab. ver: that is, in the enjoyment of all the good things of this life without any mixture of evil. And in a moment go down to the grave They do not die of a lingering disease, as many good men die, but suddenly and sweetly.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
21:13 They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment {f} go down to the grave.
(f) Not being tormented with long sickness.