18 How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a gale?
18 They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
18 That they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that the storm carries away?
18 How often are they blown away by bad luck? Not very often.
18 They are like straw before the wind, And like chaff that a storm carries away.
18 Are they driven before the wind like straw? Are they carried away by the storm like chaff? Not at all!
4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
4 You're not at all like the wicked, who are mere windblown dust -
4 The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
4 But not the wicked! They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind.
(Read Psalm 1:4-6)
The ungodly are the reverse of the righteous, both in character and condition. The ungodly are not so, ver. 4; they are led by the counsel of the wicked, in the way of sinners, to the seat of the scornful; they have no delight in the law of God; they bring forth no fruit but what is evil. The righteous are like useful, fruitful trees: the ungodly are like the chaff which the wind drives away: the dust which the owner of the floor desires to have driven away, as not being of any use. They are of no worth in God's account, how highly soever they may value themselves. They are easily driven to and fro by every wind of temptation. The chaff may be, for a while, among the wheat, but He is coming, whose fan is in his hand, and who will thoroughly purge his floor. Those that, by their own sin and folly, make themselves as chaff, will be found so before the whirlwind and fire of Divine wrath. The doom of the ungodly is fixed, but whenever the sinner becomes sensible of this guilt and misery, he may be admitted into the company of the righteous by Christ the living way, and become in Christ a new creature. He has new desires, new pleasures, hopes, fears, sorrows, companions, and employments. His thoughts, words, and actions are changed. He enters on a new state, and bears a new character. Behold, all things are become new by Divine grace, which changes his soul into the image of the Redeemer. How different the character and end of the ungodly!
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 21:18
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.