Job 21:1-3, Listen (then mock)
Then Job replied:
"Listen carefully to my words;
let this be the consolation you give me.
Bear with me while I speak,
and after I have spoken, mock on.
Go ahead and mock, suggests Job. "But you are not listening. Listen to me first!"
Job 21:4-6, Yes, I am terrified!
"Is my complaint directed to man?
Why should I not be impatient?
Look at me and be astonished;
clap your hand over your mouth.
When I think about this, I am terrified;
trembling seizes my body.
"Yes, I am terrified," says Job. "Does that astonish you? I have a right to be impatient!"
Job 21:7-13, Wicked established
Why do the wicked live on,
growing old and increasing in power?
They see their children established around them,
their offspring before their eyes.
Their homes are safe and free from fear;
the rod of God is not upon them.
Their bulls never fail to breed;
their cows calve and do not miscarry.
They send forth their children as a flock;
their little ones dance about.
They sing to the music of tambourine and harp;
they make merry to the sound of the flute.
They spend their years in prosperity
and go down to the grave in peace.
Job points out that instead of facing justice, the wicked seem to prosper, passing on their wealth to their children. Their homes appear safe and free of fear, their flocks grow and produce, they have many children whose dancing music shows their happiness. You claim, he says, that the wicked are punished but that is not common experience.
Job 21:14-16, Wickedness and rebellion
"Yet they say to God, `Leave us alone!
We have no desire to know your ways.
Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
What would we gain by praying to him?'
But their prosperity is not in their own hands,
so I stand aloof from the counsel of the wicked.
The wicked are noted as stubbornly resisting God. They tell God to leave them alone and they see no reason to pray to Him.
At the end, Job doesn't really believe that the evil control their own prosperity but this is irrelevant -- he is not one of them.
Job 21:17-21, Justice delayed.
"Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?
How often does calamity come upon them,
the fate God allots in his anger?
How often are they like straw before the wind,
like chaff swept away by a gale?
[It is said,] `God stores up a man's punishment for his sons.'
Let him repay the man himself, so that he will know it!
Let his own eyes see his destruction;
let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
For what does he care about the family he leaves behind
when his allotted months come to an end?
Job asks a series of rhetorical questions that begin "How often?" (are the wicked punished) with the implied answer "Never" or "Rarely." Justice is delayed, says Job. If only the wicked were truly punished on this earth!
"Some say," says Job, "that at least their children suffer for the evil of the wickedness. But what good is that? The evil don't care that after their own death their children might suffer."
So, concludes Job, the law of retribution is faulty. The evil escape punishment and the good sometimes suffer. The implication is clear -- his friends should stop judging him by his suffering.
Job 21:22, Can you teach God?
"Can anyone teach knowledge to God,
since he judges even the highest?
No, of course we can't teach knowledge to God, agrees Job.
Job 21:23-26, Equalizer
One man dies in full vigor,
completely secure and at ease,
his body well nourished,
his bones rich with marrow.
Another man dies in bitterness of soul,
never having enjoyed anything good.
Side by side they lie in the dust,
and worms cover them both.
Death is the great equalizer; all men succumb to it.
Job 21:27-33, Successful evil men
"I know full well what you are thinking,
the schemes by which you would wrong me.
You say, `Where now is the great man's house,
the tents where wicked men lived?'
Have you never questioned those who travel?
Have you paid no regard to their accounts--
that the evil man is spared from the day of calamity,
that he is delivered from the day of wrath?
Who denounces his conduct to his face?
Who repays him for what he has done?
He is carried to the grave,
and watch is kept over his tomb.
The soil in the valley is sweet to him;
all men follow after him,
and a countless throng goes before him.
"I know how you are going to respond!" says Job. "But haven't you talked to people who have been around? The wicked prevail, even in their funerals!"
Job 21:34, Lies, Lies!
"So how can you console me with your nonsense?
Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!"
In summary, everything Job's friends have said is false. Their consolations are "vanity" (hebel.)
This ends the second round of point-counterpoint, as all three of Job's friends have expressed their opinions and Job has responded. In the next chapters we will see an aborted third round, and then two different newcomers join in the conversation.
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