7 "Why do the wicked still live , Continue on, also become very powerful ? 8 "Their descendants are established with them in their sight , And their offspring before their eyes , 9 Their houses are safe from fear , And the rod of God is not on them. 10 "His ox mates without fail ; His cow calves and does not abort . 11 "They send forth their little ones like the flock , And their children skip about . 12 "They sing to the timbrel and harp And rejoice at the sound of the flute . 13 "They spend their days in prosperity , And suddenly they go down to Sheol . 14 "They say to God , ' Depart from us! We do not even desire the knowledge of Your ways . 15 'Who is the Almighty , that we should serve Him, And what would we gain if we entreat Him?' 16 "Behold , their prosperity is not in their hand ; The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17 "How often is the lamp of the wicked put out, Or does their calamity fall on them? Does God apportion destruction in His anger ? 18 "Are they as straw before the wind , And like chaff which the storm carries away ? 19 "You say, ' God stores away a man's iniquity for his sons .' Let God repay him so that he may know it. 20 "Let his own eyes see his decay , And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty . 21 "For what does he care for his household after him, When the number of his months is cut off ?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 21:7-21
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.
Commentary on Job 21:17-26
(Read Job 21:17-26)
Job had described the prosperity of wicked people; in these verses he opposes this to what his friends had maintained about their certain ruin in this life. He reconciles this to the holiness and justice of God. Even while they prosper thus, they are light and worthless, of no account with God, or with wise men. In the height of their pomp and power, there is but a step between them and ruin. Job refers the difference Providence makes between one wicked man and another, into the wisdom of God. He is Judge of all the earth, and he will do right. So vast is the disproportion between time and eternity, that if hell be the lot of every sinner at last, it makes little difference if one goes singing thither, and another sighing. If one wicked man die in a palace, and another in a dungeon, the worm that dies not, and the fire that is not quenched, will be the same to them. Thus differences in this world are not worth perplexing ourselves about.