Job 21:17-21

The negative side of his theme is now illustrated by Job. In Job 21:7 he shewed that the wicked enjoy great, life-long prosperity; now he shews that they are free from calamity; such sudden and disastrous visitations of God do not come upon them as the friends incessantly insisted on. The interrogation, How often? means, What examples can be produced of such a thing? and goes to the end of Job 21:18.

17. How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?

And how often doth their destruction come upon them,

And God distribute sorrows in his anger?

18. How often are they as stubble before the wind

And as chaff that the storm carrieth away?

The A. V., by making How oft!an exclamation, gives a sense the opposite of that expressed by the speaker. The question in the first clause of Job 21:17 runs athwart Bildad's assertions ch. Job 18:5-6, The light of the wicked shall be put out; the second clause contradicts ch. Job 18:12; with the third clause compare ch. Job 20:23.

The images in Job 21:18 are familiar for utter destruction. They are taken from the threshing-floor, which was high and open that the force of the wind might be caught in winnowing, cf. Psalms 1:4; Isaiah 17:13.