Job 21:19-21

A conceivable objection, and its answer by Job. The verses read,

19. God (say ye) layeth up his iniquity for his children.

Let him recompense it unto himself, that he may know it;

20. Let his own eyes see his destruction,

And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty;

21. For what concern hath he in his house after him,

When the number of his months is cut off?

To his argument that the wicked suffer no calamities Job supposes that his friends may object, founding on the old doctrine of retribution, that if the man himself do not suffer, his children shall be visited for his iniquity (Exodus 20:5); and his answer is, Let the man himself suffer. The expression "that he may know it" means "that he may feel it."

The word "concern" means "pleasure" as A. V., but also, interest in, care for; so Coverdale, For what careth he what become of his household after his death? The phrase "when the number of his months is cut off" means, when his life is ended. The words might also mean, when the (full) number of his months is dealt out, distributed to himself when his own life is prolonged to its full measure. But it is not necessary to regard the wicked man as so abandoned as to be destitute of interest in his children even in his life-time, and indifferent to their fate provided his own days be prolonged. Job's objection to the doctrine that a man's iniquity is visited on his children is that this is no punishment of the wicked man himself, for he hath no concern in or knowledge of his children's fate after his death (ch. Job 14:21). From the Prophetic Books of this age it appears that the ancient doctrine of retribution, the doctrine that the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge (Ezekiel 18:2), had begun to awaken questionings, cf. Jeremiah 31:29 seq., and in this book such doubts are, naturally, brought to a point.