Job 21:17-22

3. Sometimes they suffer, but not regularly. (Job 21:17-22)

TEXT 21:17-22

17 How oft is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?

That their calamity cometh upon them?
That Goddistributeth sorrows in his anger?

18 That they are as stubble before the wind.

And as chaff that the storm carrieth away?

19 Ye say, God layeth up his iniquity for his children.

Let him recompense it unto himself that he may know:

20 Let his own eyes see his destruction,

And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

21 For what careth he for his house after him,

When the number of his months is cut off?

22 Shall any teach God knowledge,

Seeing he judgeth those that are high?

COMMENT 21:17-22

Job 21:17Job admits that there is some evidence for the claims of his friends, but not enough to claim universal inevitability of the law of retribution. In a moral universe, everyone is responsible for his or her own deedsJob 18:5-6; Job 18:10 ff; Job 20:7; Job 20:22; Job 20:26-28; Job 27:20 ff; Psalms 1:4. Job asks, Where are the examples which you set forth as universal proof?

Job 21:18The metaphors here also appear in Psalms 1:4; Job 27:20; Isaiah 17:13. The images are figurative for destruction. Compare the claims of David and Job.

Job 21:19You say represents nothing from the Hebrew text, but probably is an appropriate addition which suggests a response to a question. Perhaps Job is responding with a proverb or current saying. The verse presents the ancient view that a man's sins are visited upon his childrenExodus 34:7 and Deuteronomy 5:9. He objects that this is unjust. Moses forbids the application of this law in Deuteronomy 24:16; Jeremiah 31:29; Ezekiel 18; John 9:1-3; and Matthew 27:25. The vital interrelationship between sin and its consequences must receive careful consideration in light of the biblical view of corporate personality and contemporary Systems Analysis Models. There was repercussion throughout all creation when man first sinned, and the empirical evidence sustains the biblical claims regarding the fragmentation of relationships between God and Man, Man and Self, Man and Others, and Man and Nature.

Job 21:20The wicked ought to receive the retribution themselves, not their children as Let his own eyes see his destruction (punishment)[240] suggestsIsaiah 51:17; Jeremiah 25:15; and Revelation 16:19.

[240] For analysis of this verse, see M. Dahood, Biblica, 1957, p. 316; and compare with A. F. L. Beeston, Le museon, 1954, pp. 315ff.

Job 21:21What concern does a dead man have for his house?Ezekiel 18:2; Jeremiah 31:28 ff. The Qumran Targum has what interest for God in his house after his death? What difference does God make to a dead ungodly person?

Job 21:22Who can teach God anything? Shall even the high ones (Heb., ramin, probably angels and not God as claimed by both Blommerde and Dahood) teach Him: It would make little sense of God instructing HimselfJob 4:18; Job 15:15; Job 22:13; Job 15:2; Psalms 73:11. Job is asserting that moral considerations alone do not explain the varieties of human experience, for the intensity of either happiness or despair.