7 Why do the wicked have it so good, live to a ripe old age and get rich? 8 They get to see their children succeed, get to watch and enjoy their grandchildren. 9 Their homes are peaceful and free from fear; they never experience God's disciplining rod. 10 Their bulls breed with great vigor and their cows calve without fail. 11 They send their children out to play and watch them frolic like spring lambs. 12 They make music with fiddles and flutes, have good times singing and dancing. 13 They have a long life on easy street, and die painlessly in their sleep. 14 They say to God, 'Get lost! We've no interest in you or your ways. 15 Why should we have dealings with God Almighty? What's there in it for us?' 16 But they're wrong, dead wrong - they're not gods. It's beyond me how they can carry on like this!
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 21:7-16
Commentary on Job 21:7-16
(Read Job 21:7-16)
Job says, Remarkable judgments are sometimes brought upon notorious sinners, but not always. Wherefore is it so? This is the day of God's patience; and, in some way or other, he makes use of the prosperity of the wicked to serve his own counsels, while it ripens them for ruin; but the chief reason is, because he will make it appear there is another world. These prospering sinners make light of God and religion, as if because they have so much of this world, they had no need to look after another. But religion is not a vain thing. If it be so to us, we may thank ourselves for resting on the outside of it. Job shows their folly.