Job 21:1-34
Job’s Discourse on the Wicked
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “Listen carefully to my speech,
And let this be your consolation.
3 Bear with me that I may speak,
And after I have spoken, keep mocking.
4 “As for me, is my complaint against man?
And if it were, why should I not be impatient?
5 Look at me and be astonished;
Put your hand over your mouth.
6 Even when I remember I am terrified,
And trembling takes hold of my flesh.
7 Why do the wicked live and become old,
Yes, become mighty in power?
8 Their descendants are established with them in their sight,
And their offspring before their eyes.
9 Their houses are safe from fear,
Neither is the rod of God upon them.
10 Their bull breeds without failure;
Their cow calves without miscarriage.
11 They send forth their little ones like a flock,
And their children dance.
12 They sing to the tambourine and harp,
And rejoice to the sound of the flute.
13 They spend their days in wealth,
And in a moment go down to the grave.
14 Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us,
For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.
15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?
And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?’
16 Indeed their prosperity is not in their hand;
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17 “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
How often does their destruction come upon them,
The sorrows God distributes in His anger?
18 They are like straw before the wind,
And like chaff that a storm carries away.
19 They say, ‘God lays up one’s iniquity for his children’;
Let Him recompense him, that he may know it.
20 Let his eyes see his destruction,
And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what does he care about his household after him,
When the number of his months is cut in half?
22 “Can anyone teach God knowledge,
Since He judges those on high?
23 One dies in his full strength,
Being wholly at ease and secure;
24 His pails are full of milk,
And the marrow of his bones is moist.
25 Another man dies in the bitterness of his soul,
Never having eaten with pleasure.
26 They lie down alike in the dust,
And worms cover them.
27 “Look, I know your thoughts,
And the schemes with which you would wrong me.
28 For you say,
‘Where is the house of the prince?
And where is the tent,
The dwelling place of the wicked?’
29 Have you not asked those who travel the road?
And do you not know their signs?
30 For the wicked are reserved for the day of doom;
They shall be brought out on the day of wrath.
31 Who condemns his way to his face?
And who repays him for what he has done?
32 Yet he shall be brought to the grave,
And a vigil kept over the tomb.
33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him;
Everyone shall follow him,
As countless have gone before him.
34 How then can you comfort me with empty words,
Since falsehood remains in your answers?”
Job answered his bad counselors with a long speech about the wicked and their end. He first asked them to hold their tongues until he had his say, saying that after he was finished they could go on mocking him if they wished. He began by decrying the wicked who seem to love long lives and amass great worldly power as he pointed his friends to look on him who once had all those things and now appeared in an astonishing state of suffering and illness before them. He told them about how the wicked seemed to have it all; many children, houses, prosperity — all without the discipline of God on them as it appeared was on Hob in stark contrast. The wicked seemed to have it all (Psalm 73:3-5, 9, 12, 17-19, 27) until they suddenly died after telling God to leave them alone because they had no desire to know about Him or His ways from his word. The wicked refuse to serve God or pray to Him, not understanding that their fleeting prosperity is solely in God’s hands and not their own as they imagine in their ignorance of pride. These are like straw before the wind of the threshing floor (Psalm 1:4, Jeremiah 23:28-29, Matthew 3:12) whose lives are likened to the worthless chaff which is suddenly blown away by God for their rejection of Him. These would rather allow their own children to suffer for their sins than face God while still living. Job used these examples to illustrate how God is the only judge on high and we cannot teach Him or demand what others must face in judgment; only He can do that. Job made it crystal clear that he knew what his companions were up to in their schemes to discredit him and blame his sins for his suffering as if they were his judge and jury. He reminded them that God has reserved the wicked for judgment in His wrath on the day of reckoning, and all will die and then face Him (Hebrews 9:27-28) in the end to be held accountable to the Almighty. He ended his diatribe with, “How then can you comfort me with empty words, since falsehood remains in your answers?” Job reminded them that false accusations are held to account and no amount of bad counsel in many words can change that. May we therefore be humble in our judgment of what we think we see and allow God to guide us to truly counsel according to the words of our Lord instead of our own preconceived notions since we cannot know the motives of the heart nor the heavenly purposes behind another’s suffering.
