Job 21

Job 21 is Job's reply that concludes the second cycle of debate between Job and his three friends (chapters 15–21). In the preceding chapter, Job 20, Zophar argued that the prosperity of the wicked is short-lived. In this chapter Job counters that argument by observing that in the real world the wicked do well.

Outline

• Verses 1–6 Job tells his friends that listening carefully to his words would itself be a comfort. He then urges them to look at his condition, be astonished, and lay their hands upon their mouths.
• Verses 7–16 Job describes the life of the wicked. They live long, their offspring are established, their livestock multiply, and their children rejoice to the sound of the timbrel and harp; then in a moment they go down to the grave. They say to God, "Depart from us," yet Job distances himself from them, declaring that the counsel of the wicked is not his own.
• Verses 17–21 Job asks how often the candle of the wicked is actually put out. Against the notion that God repays a man's sin upon his children, he insists that the sinner himself should bear the punishment.
• Verses 22–26 Job acknowledges that no one can teach God knowledge. At the same time, he observes that the one who lived at ease and the one who lived in bitterness lie down alike in the dust.
• Verses 27–33 Job says he knows what his friends are really thinking. He then appeals to the testimony of those who travel the roads: even the wicked man is carried to the grave, and men keep watch over his tomb.
• Verse 34 Job concludes that his friends' comfort is vain and that their answers are nothing but falsehood.

Key Verses

• Job 21:7 "Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?": one of the most direct statements of the problem of the prosperity of the wicked.
• Job 21:15 "What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?": sums up the attitude of those who seem to flourish without God.
• Job 21:26 "They shall lie down alike in the dust": Job's observation that the prosperous and the afflicted are no different in the face of death.

People and Places

• Job: a man of the land of Uz who suffered great affliction; the speaker of this chapter.
• Job's three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Although Job is directly answering Zophar, he addresses all three, speaking to them as "you."
• Sheol: mentioned in verse 13 (rendered "the grave" in the KJV), referring to the place to which the dead go down.

Points for Reflection

• This chapter challenges a simplistic principle of retribution—the idea that the good are blessed and the wicked suffer, each repaid according to his deeds. Similar questions appear in Psalm 73 and Jeremiah 12:1.
• The notion that God repays sin upon one's children, which Job rejects in verse 19, is often read in comparison with Ezekiel 18:2–4.
• The meaning of verse 30 differs among translations. The Korean Revised Version renders it as saying that the wicked are reserved for "the day of destruction" (as does the KJV), while some translations, such as the NIV, follow the surrounding context and render it as saying that the wicked are spared from the day of calamity.
• Job's words are not the book's final conclusion. God answers Job out of the whirlwind, and at the end He declares that the friends have not spoken of Him what is right, as Job has (Job 42:7–10).
• In the New Testament, John 9:1–3, a scene in which suffering is not treated as the direct result of sin, is often read together with this chapter.