Job 21:27-34

5. So, your argument that I am wicked because I suffer is false. (Job 21:27-34)

TEXT 21:27-34

27 Behold, I know your thoughts,

And the devices wherewith ye would wrong me.

28 For ye say, Where is the house of the prince?

And where is the tent wherein the wicked dwelt?

29 Have ye not asked wayfaring men?

And do ye not know their evidences,

30 That the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity?

That they are led forth to the day of wrath?

31 Who shall declare his way to his face?

And who shall repay him what he hath done?

32 Yet shall he be borne to the grave,

And men shall keep watch over the tomb.

33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him,

And all men shall draw after him,
As there were innumerable before him.

34 How then comfort ye me in vain,

Seeing in your answer there remaineth onlyfalsehood?

COMMENT 21:27-34

Job 21:27Job has thus far claimed that there is no evident connection between happiness and virtueJob 21:19-21; Job 21:23-26. The friends will simply not face the truth of the blunt realities of lifeEcclesiastes 8:14; Job 21:34 b. He knows that his friends meant him while they were claiming that the wicked are destroyed; Job is destroyed; therefore, Job is wickedJob 4:7. His suffering is the price paid for his sins. He says that they have violently wronged him (word translated wrong is stronger than our English word).

Job 21:28Nadib means a rich prince. Here the implication is a wealthy but wicked prince who has exploited the poorJob 20:19. God's vengeance has swept his house awayJob 8:15; Job 8:22; Job 18:15; Job 18:21; Job 15:34.

Job 21:29Any wayfarer (those who travel the roads, not necessarily a world traveler) could tell Job's friends that their claims are not universally the caseLamentations 1:12; Lamentations 2:15; Psalms 80:13; Psalms 89:42; Proverbs 9:15. The daily experience (signs or monuments) of many will refute their claims. Why do they persist in their a priori evaluation of the wicked and the righteous, when the evidence refutes their claims?

Job 21:30Those who travel the roads report that wicked men are delivered (lit. brought away from, A. V. preservedbut the English meaning is not that of the Hebrew) and led to safety on many occasionsJob 20:28; Deuteronomy 32:35; Isaiah 26:20; Jeremiah 18:17; Ezekiel 7:19; Zephaniah 1:15; Zephaniah 1:18; and Proverbs 11:4.[241]

[241] F. H. Andersen, Job, InterVarsity Press, 1976, p. 201.

Job 21:31The reference here is to the successful, powerful despot, not God as some assume. Who would publicly rebuke a tyrant: The way (halaklife style; way of life) represents the behavior pattern of the wicked but successful man.

Job 21:32There is abundant evidence that wicked men are honored in both life and death. They are so respected that men watch over their tombs. Perhaps there is reference to Near Eastern custom that effigy of important dead persons watch over their own tombs. Whether this be so or not, Job is claiming that often the wicked are buried in pomp and much circumstance. How different from his own situation.

Job 21:33Burial was often in a ravine or valleyDeuteronomy 34:6. After the rains, the clods would become as hard as rocks and so continue to mark the grave. He has no beautiful mausoleum only clods to identify the spot where the earth entombs his once strong body. Perhaps the metaphor speaks of a funeral procession. The wicked often have a peaceful death and posthumous fame.

Job 21:34Thus Job's speech completes the second cycle. He dismisses the arguments of his friends as vain in view of the rocks of reality. Their answers are perfidy (Heb. ma-'alsacrilegious attack on God). The things they have been saying on God's behalf are all lies when tested against experience.