Reflections on Job 21

 Job 21 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Job said:
2. If you want to offer comfort, then listen to me.
3. And when I have finished, you can start your insults all over again.
4. My complaint is against God; that's why I am impatient.
5. Just looking at me is enough to make you sick,
6. and the very thought of myself fills me with disgust.
7. Why do evil people live so long and gain such power?
8. Why are they allowed to see their children grow up?
9. They have no worries at home, and God never punishes them.
10. Their cattle have lots of calves without ever losing one;
11. their children play and dance safely by themselves.
12. These people sing and celebrate to the sound of tambourines, small harps, and flutes,
13. and they are successful, without a worry, until the day they die.
14. Those who are evil say to God All-Powerful, "Leave us alone! Don't bother us with your teachings.
15. What do we gain from praying and worshiping you?
16. We succeeded all on our own." And so, I keep away from them and their evil schemes.
17. How often does God become angry and send disaster and darkness to punish sinners?
18. How often does he strike them like a windstorm that scatters straw?
19. You say, "God will punish those sinners' children in place of those sinners." But I say, "Let him punish those sinners themselves until they really feel it.
20. Let God All-Powerful force them to drink their own destruction from the cup of his anger.
21. Because after they are dead, they won't care what happens to their children."
22. Who can tell God what to do? He judges powerful rulers.
23. Some of us die prosperous,
24. enjoying good health,
25. while others die in poverty, having known only pain.
26. But we all end up dead, beneath a blanket of worms.
27. My friends, I know that you are plotting against me.
28. You ask, "Where is the home of that important person who does so much evil?"
29. Everyone, near and far, agrees
30. that those who do wrong never suffer disaster, when God becomes angry.
31. No one points out their sin or punishes them.
32. Then at their funerals, they are highly praised;
33. the earth welcomes them home, while crowds mourn.
34. But empty, meaningless words are the comfort you offer me.

---

In his response to Zophar, Job directed his comments to the absurdity of his friend's assertions that the wicked live short lives and do not enjoy their gains. If this is true, "Why do the wicked continue to live, growing old and becoming powerful?" (21:7) Neither do their children suffer from their father's sins. While many wicked "spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace," (21:13) they "say to God: 'Leave us alone! We don't want to know Your ways.'" (21:14) And even though these wicked reject God their prosperity comes from God.

Job continued to challenge the assumptions of his friends by asking them to tell him how often the lives of the wicked are snuffed out? Nor, he says, does God reserve their punishment for their children. How does that punish them, for when they are dead they don't care? No, health, wealth, or suffering are no means by which to judge one's character. For God allows one a life of excellent health and of ease and another a bitter life without prosperity, and yet they both die and decay in the grave.

Job's friends needed to broaden their experience. Ask a traveler, Job said, who has been many places and seen many things. See if he agrees with their assumption that the wicked are punished in this life. The traveler as well will agree that "the evil man is spared from the day of disaster, rescued from the day of wrath." (21:30) No, the friends have it all wrong. How could they offer such "futile comfort?" All their answers are lies. (21:34)