Job
Chapter 21
Job’s Response to Zophar
Job replied:
Listen at least to my words, enough of your consolation.
Bear with me while I speak; and then you can mock.
Is my grudge against humans? Why then should I not be impatient?
Look at me and be shocked; cover your mouth for a moment.
When I think about this, I am troubled, and trembling takes over my body.
Why do the wicked live, grow older, and gain power?
Their descendants thrive in front of them, along with their relatives and children.
Their homes are secure, free from fear; they do not feel God’s punishment.
Their bulls breed without issues; their cows give birth and do not miscarry.
They have children as easily as lambs, and their little ones dance like deer.
They sing to the rhythm of timbrel and harp; make merry to the sound of the flute.
They live out their days in happiness and go down to Sheol in peace.
Yet they said to God, “Go away! We have no desire to learn your way.
Who is the Almighty that we should serve him? What will it profit us if we pray to him?”
Though they planned everything far from God prosperity is in their hands.
How often is their lamp put out? How often does calamity befall them? How often does God’s anger wipe them out?
How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff which the storm sweeps away?
You say, “His children will pay for his sin.” Let the man himself pay for his iniquity;
let his own eyes see his misfortune; let him drink the wrath of the Almighty!
What does he care about his family when he dies, when his months have been cut off?
Can anyone teach God knowledge, since he judges even the highest?
One man dies in full vigor, at ease and completely secure;
full and nourished is his figure, rich in marrow are his bones.
Another dies in bitterness, never having enjoyed happiness.
But in the dust, they lie down side by side, covered with worms.
I know your thoughts fully and your schemes about me.
For you say, “Where is the house of the great prince? Where is the tent of the wicked?”
Have you never asked the travelers, or have you misunderstood what they say—
that the evil man is spared from calamity, delivered from the day of God’s fury?
Who will confront his conduct directly or repay him for what he has done?
When he is laid in the grave, his image lingers from his tomb.
The soft earth is sweet to him; behind him, everyone follows, and before him, a countless throng gathers.
How then can you comfort me with your nonsense? All you have said is pure falsehood.
Commentaries
Job’s Response to Zophar.
This reply contains numerous references (too many to list here) to what he has said earlier. If his friends cannot offer him the benefit of silence (13:5), they could at least listen to what he is saying, as he is not speaking in generalities but about his own personal suffering (5f). His friends’ argument has recently focused on the fate of the wicked, but Job addresses this point and rejects it. The wicked do not suffer; instead, most of them thrive, prosper, and die happy.
What’s more, they mock God! (14). It was a common belief at the time that the effects of a person’s sins were passed on to their family and descendants. That may be true, says Job, but it is unfair. Those who sin must suffer the punishment themselves. What happens after he dies matters little to him (18-21). But no, the wicked do not suffer; on the contrary, they prosper and die happy. That is how things have always been, are now, and will be. The vain advice of his friends is nothing but lies (34). Thus ends the second round of speeches.