21:2 Hear diligently my speech, and let this a be your
consolations.
(a) Your diligent marking of my words will be to me a great
consolation.
21:4 As for me, [is] my complaint to man? and if [it b were
so], why should not my spirit be troubled?
(b) As though he would say, I do not talk with man but with
God, who will not answer me, and therefore my mind must
be troubled.
21:5 Mark me, and be astonished, and lay [your] hand upon [your]
c mouth.
(c) He charges them as though they were not able to
comprehend his feeling of God's judgment, and exhorts
them therefore to silence.
21:7 Wherefore do the wicked d live, become old, yea, are
mighty in power?
(d) Job proves against his adversaries that God does not
punish the wicked immediately, but often gives them
long life and prosperity, so we must not judge God just
or unjust by the things that appear to our eyes.
21:11 They send forth their little ones e like a flock, and
their children dance.
(e) They have healthy children and in those points he
answers to that which Zophar alleged before.
21:13 They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment f go
down to the grave.
(f) Not being tormented with long sickness.
21:14 Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire
not the g knowledge of thy ways.
(g) They desire nothing more than to be exempt from all
subjection that they should bear to God, thus Job
shows his adversaries, that if they reason only by
that which is seen by common experience the wicked
who hate God are better dealt withal than they who
love him.
21:16 Lo, their good [is] not in their h hand: the counsel of
the wicked i is far from me.
(h) It is not their own, but God only lends it to them.
(i) God keep me from their prosperity.
21:20k His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink
of the wrath of the Almighty.
(k) When God recompenses his wickedness, he will know that
his prosperity was vanity.
21:22 Shall [any] teach l God knowledge? seeing he judgeth
those that are high.
(l) Who sends to the wicked prosperity and punishes the
godly.
21:23 One m dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease
and quiet.
(m) Meaning, the wicked.
21:25 And another n dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and
never eateth with pleasure.
(n) That is, the godly.
21:26 They shall lie down alike in o the dust, and the worms
shall cover them.
(o) As concerning their bodies: and this he speaks
according to the common judgment.
21:28 For ye say, Where [is] the p house of the prince? and
where [are] the dwelling places of the wicked?
(p) Thus they called Job's house in derision concluding
that it was destroyed because he was wicked.
21:29 Have ye q not asked them that go by the way? and do ye
not know their tokens,
(q) Who through long travailing have experience and tokens
of it, that is, that the wicked prosper, and the godly
live in affliction.
21:30 That the wicked is reserved to the day of r destruction?
they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.
(r) Though the wicked flourish here, yet God will punish
him in the last day.
21:31 Who shall declare his way s to his face? and who shall
repay him [what] he hath done?
(s) Though men flatter him, and no one dares to reprove
him in this world, yet death is a token that he will
bring him to an account.
21:33 The t clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and
every man shall draw after him, as [there are] innumerable
before him.
(t) He will be glad to lie in a slimy pit, who before
could not be content with a royal palace.
21:34 How then comfort u ye me in vain, seeing in your answers
there remaineth falsehood?
(u) Saying that the just in this world have prosperity and
the wicked adversity.
