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 ? 22 "Can anyone teach God knowledge , In that He judges those on high ? 23 "One dies in his full strength , Being wholly at ease and satisfied ; 24 His sides are filled out with fat , And the marrow of his bones is moist , 25 While another dies with a bitter soul , Never even tasting anything good . 26 "Together they lie down in the dust , And worms cover them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 21:17-26
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.