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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Job 21 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/job/21.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; 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I do not ask for your sympathy, and, therefore, why should ye resent an offence that is not given? If, however, I did ask it, might not my spirit with good reason be impatient? But, on the contrary, my complaint is to God; and, concerning the ways of God, I venture to ask why it is that His justice is so tardy; and this is a problem which when I remember it I am troubled, and horror taketh hold on my flesh, so difficult and arduous is it.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-8.htm">Job 21:8</a></div><div class="verse">Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">Their seed is established in their sight.</span>—Not only are they mighty in power themselves, but they leave their power to their children after them (comp. <a href="/psalms/17-14.htm" title="From men which are your hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly you fill with your hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.">Psalm 17:14</a>). This contradicts what Eliphaz had said (<a href="/job/15-34.htm" title="For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.">Job 15:34</a>), what Bildad had said (<a href="/job/18-19.htm" title="He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.">Job 18:19</a>), and what Zophar had said (<a href="/job/20-10.htm" title="His children shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods.">Job 20:10</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-9.htm">Job 21:9</a></div><div class="verse">Their houses <i>are</i> safe from fear, neither <i>is</i> the rod of God upon them.</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Their houses are safe from fear.</span>—On the contrary, Zophar had just said that “a fire not blown should consume him” (<a href="/job/20-26.htm" title="All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.">Job 20:26</a>), and Bildad (in <a href="/job/18-15.htm" title="It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because it is none of his: brimstone shall be scattered on his habitation.">Job 18:15</a>) that “destruction should dwell in his tabernacle, and brimstone be scattered on his habitation.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-11.htm">Job 21:11</a></div><div class="verse">They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.</div>(11, 12) <span class= "bld">They send forth their little ones . . .</span>—In striking contrast to the fate of Job’s own children, and in contradiction to what Eliphaz had said (<a href="/context/job/15-29.htm" title="He shall not be rich, neither shall his substance continue, neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof on the earth.">Job 15:29-33</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-13.htm">Job 21:13</a></div><div class="verse">They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.</div>(13) <span class= "bld">In a moment.</span>—They go down to death without being made to feel the lingering tortures that Job had to undergo.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-14.htm">Job 21:14</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">Therefore they say unto God.</span>—Should be, <span class= "ital">Yet they said unto God, Depart from us, </span>&c.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-16.htm">Job 21:16</a></div><div class="verse">Lo, their good <i>is</i> not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me.</div>(16) L<span class= "bld">o, their good </span>(<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>their prosperity) <span class= "bld">is not in their own hand.</span>—And that constitutes the mystery of it, for it is God who gives it to them; or the words may be a hypothetical answer to his statement, thus, “Lo, thou repliest, their prosperity is not,” &c.; and then the words, “the counsel of the wicked is far from me,” are Job’s indignant repudiation of all knowledge of their reasoning.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-17.htm">Job 21:17</a></div><div class="verse">How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and <i>how oft</i> cometh their destruction upon them! <i>God</i> distributeth sorrows in his anger.</div>(17) <span class= "bld">How oft is the candle of the wicked put out?</span>—This and the following verse are either a concession on the part of Job, as much as to say, “I admit that it is as you say with the wicked;” or else they should be read interrogatively, “How often is it that we do see this? “<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-19.htm">Job 21:19</a></div><div class="verse">God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know <i>it</i>.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">God layeth up his iniquity </span>(i.e., the punishment of it) <span class= "bld">for his children, </span>may be the hypothetical reply of the antagonists in the mouth of Job, and the second clause his own retort: “Let him repay it to himself that he may know it.”<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-20.htm">Job 21:20</a></div><div class="verse">His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">His eyes</span> <span class= "bld">shall see his destruction.</span>—This may be understood as the continuation of Job’s suggested amendment of the Divine government. “His own eyes should see his destruction, and he should drink of the wrath, &c. For what concern or interest hath he in his house after him when the number of his months is cut off, &c. “<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-22.htm">Job 21:22</a></div><div class="verse">Shall <i>any</i> teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">Shall any teach God knowledge? </span>may be regarded as the hypothetical reply of the antagonist. If the reader prefers to understand these latter verses in any other way, it is open to him to do so, but in our judgment it seems better to understand them thus. The supposed alternative hypothetical argument seems to throw much light upon them.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-23.htm">Job 21:23</a></div><div class="verse">One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.</div>(23) <span class= "bld">One dieth.</span>—Job enlarges on the inequality of human fate, showing that death is the only equaliser.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-24.htm">Job 21:24</a></div><div class="verse">His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">His breasts.</span>—This is an uncertain word, occurring only here. Some understand it literally of <span class= "ital">milk-pails, </span>others of the lacteals of the human body, which certainly suits the parallelism better.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-26.htm">Job 21:26</a></div><div class="verse">They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">They shall lie down alike in the dust.</span>—Not only, therefore, is the inequality of their life a stumbling-block, but so also is the equality which obliterates all distinction between them in death.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-28.htm">Job 21:28</a></div><div class="verse">For ye say, Where <i>is</i> the house of the prince? and where <i>are</i> the dwelling places of the wicked?</div>(28) <span class= "bld">Of the prince</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., of the generous, virtuous, princely man?</span>—the antithesis to the wicked man. “Behold I know your thoughts, for ye say, How can we tell who is virtuous and who is wicked? and consequently we know not to which catalogue you belong.” They had all along been insinuating that, though he seemed to be righteous, he was really wicked.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-29.htm">Job 21:29</a></div><div class="verse">Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens,</div>(29) <span class= "bld">Their tokens</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., the marks and evidences of their experience, and the conclusions at which they had arrived.</span><span class= "bld"><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-30.htm">Job 21:30</a></div><div class="verse">That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.</div>(30-33) <span class= "bld">That the wicked. . . .</span>—These verses contain the result of their experience.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-32.htm">Job 21:32</a></div><div class="verse">Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.</div>(32) <span class= "bld">And shall remain in the tomb.</span>—The word rendered tomb is rendered <span class= "ital">shock of corn </span>in <a href="/job/5-26.htm" title="You shall come to your grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn comes in in his season.">Job 5:26</a>, and is not found in the sense of tomb elsewhere. It is doubtful, therefore, whether this is its meaning here. The verse may mean: “He shall be borne to the grave, and men shall watch over his sheaves,” <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>his possessions; or “He shall be borne to the grave with as much deference as when he used to watch over his sheaves” (to protect them from robbery).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-33.htm">Job 21:33</a></div><div class="verse">The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as <i>there are</i> innumerable before him.</div>(33) <span class= "bld">The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him.</span>—Death is robbed of its repulsiveness and horror, seeing that all will be glad to join in his funeral procession, and after him all men will draw (in endless procession), and before him they will be without number.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/job/21-34.htm">Job 21:34</a></div><div class="verse">How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?</div>(34) There remaineth falsehood.—Or, <span class= "ital">all that is left of them is transgression, </span>that is to say, it is not only worthless, but yet more, it is even harmful and wrong.<p><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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