Job 21

Then Job answered:

1But Job answered and said,

2"Listen carefully to what I say. Let that be the comfort you give me.

2Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations.

3Put up with me while I speak. Then, after I have spoken, go ahead and keep mocking.

3Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.

4Is my complaint against a human being? If it is not, why should I not lose patience?

4As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?

NoteThe point of the question is that Job's quarrel is not with the friends sitting in front of him but with God; if his opponent is God, he argues, no one should expect him to stay calm. "Impatient" here translates a Hebrew idiom, literally "short of spirit", at the end of one's endurance.

5Look at me and be shocked. Put your hand over your mouth.

5Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.

NotePutting a hand over the mouth was a recognized gesture in the ancient Near East: it signaled silence forced on someone by shock, or by being outranked in an argument. Job is asking the friends to stop talking and look.

6When I think about it, I am terrified, and my body shakes.

6Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.

7Why do the wicked go on living? Why do they grow old and grow stronger in power?

7Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?

NoteThis is Job's reply to the friends' repeated argument that the wicked are struck down in this life and the righteous prosper. The rest of the chapter is his counter-evidence, drawn from what he says anyone can observe.

8Their children are secure around them, and their descendants are before their eyes.

8Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.

9Their homes are safe, with nothing to fear. God's rod of punishment does not fall on them.

9Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.

NoteThe "rod" is a stick used for beating, the ordinary image for a father disciplining a child or a master punishing a servant, applied here to God's correction.

10Their bulls breed without failing. Their cows give birth and do not lose their calves.

10Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.

NoteIn a herding economy, breeding success was wealth itself. Bulls that sire reliably and cows that carry calves to term, with no miscarriages, is a picture of a household growing richer year on year.

11They send their little ones out like a flock of lambs, and their children dance about.

11They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.

12They sing to the tambourine and the lyre, and they enjoy the sound of the pipe.

12They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.

NoteThe lyre was a small hand-held stringed instrument, plucked rather than bowed. The "pipe" was a reed or flute-like wind instrument. The King James "organ" does not mean a church organ; the word simply meant a pipe instrument in 1611.

13They spend their days doing well, and they go down to the grave in peace.

13They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.

Note"The grave" translates Sheol, the Hebrew name for the underworld where all the dead were thought to go, good and bad alike. It is not a place of punishment; it is simply where the dead are.

14Yet they say to God, 'Leave us alone. We do not want to know your ways.

14Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

15Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?'

15What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?

Note"The Almighty" renders the Hebrew title Shaddai, an old name for God used far more often in Job than anywhere else in the Bible. Its exact original meaning is uncertain.

16Look, their good fortune is not in their own hands. The plans of the wicked are far from me.

16Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

NoteThis line is difficult and readers have long disagreed about it. It may mean the prosperity of the wicked is not something they produced themselves, or it may be Job quoting his friends' view and then distancing himself from it. The Hebrew allows both.

17How often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out? How often does disaster come on them? How often does God hand out sorrows in his anger?

17How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger.

NoteThe Hebrew has no punctuation, so these lines can be read either as exclamations ("How often the lamp of the wicked is put out!") or as skeptical questions ("How often does it actually happen?"). Job's argument in the surrounding verses points to the questioning sense. A lamp going out is a standard image for a family line dying out.

18How often are they like straw blown before the wind, like husks that a storm sweeps away?

18They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.

NoteAfter threshing, grain was tossed into the air so the wind carried off the light husks and straw, leaving the heavy kernels behind. Being "chaff before the wind" is the stock image for something worthless and easily swept away.

19You say God stores up a man's punishment for his children. Let God pay the man himself, so that he knows it.

19God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know it.

NoteJob is quoting a common saying (that a man's punishment is deferred onto his children) in order to reject it. The rendering's "You say" makes explicit what the Hebrew leaves to the reader to infer.

20Let his own eyes see his ruin. Let him drink the anger of the Almighty himself.

20His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

NoteDrinking someone's anger is a fixed Hebrew image: God's wrath is pictured as a cup handed to a person, which they must drink to the bottom.

21For what does he care about his household after he is gone, once the number of his months is cut short?

21For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?

22Can anyone teach God anything, since he is the one who judges even those on high?

22Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high.

Note"Those on high" most likely means heavenly beings rather than powerful humans, the point being that if God passes judgment on beings in heaven, no human is in a position to instruct him.

23One man dies in full strength, completely secure and at ease.

23One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

24His body is well fed, and his bones are rich with marrow.

24His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "his body" occurs only here and its meaning is unknown; guesses include his sides, his loins, or milk pails. The King James translators rendered it "breasts." The general sense (a well-fed, healthy body) is not in doubt. Bones "rich with marrow" was the ordinary way of describing physical vigor.

25Another man dies with bitterness in his soul, having never tasted anything good.

25And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure.

26Both of them lie down together in the dust, and the worms cover them both.

26They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.

27Look, I know what you are thinking, and I know the schemes you use to wrong me.

27Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me.

28For you say, 'Where is the great man's house now? Where are the tents the wicked lived in?'

28For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?

NoteThe friends' standard argument was that you can see the ruin of the wicked in abandoned houses and collapsed tents. "Tents" is not a poverty image: in this world of semi-nomadic herders, a tent was a normal dwelling for a wealthy household.

29Have you never asked the people who travel the roads? Do you not accept the evidence they bring back,

29Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens,

NoteTravelers were the main source of news from anywhere distant. Job is telling the friends to ask people who have actually been abroad and seen how the world works, rather than repeating received wisdom.

30that the evil man is held back from the day of disaster, and is carried away safe on the day of anger?

30That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.

NoteThe Hebrew can be read two ways: that the wicked man is held back for the day of disaster (kept for punishment) or that he is held back from it (spared). Job's argument requires the second, and most modern translations follow it, but the King James takes the first.

31Who tells him to his face what he is doing? Who pays him back for what he has done?

31Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?

32He is carried to the grave, and a watch is kept over his tomb.

32Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.

NoteA guarded tomb means an honorable, expensive burial with a watch kept over the monument, the opposite of the disgraced end the friends predict for the wicked.

33The soil of the valley is sweet to him. Everyone follows along behind him, and countless people went before him.

33The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him.

NoteTwo images of a peaceful death: the earth of the grave lies lightly and pleasantly on him, and a huge funeral procession follows his body while countless generations have already gone to the grave before him.

34So how can you comfort me with empty words? Nothing is left of your answers but lies."

34How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?