Job 21
Job: Why are the wicked so lucky?
Job: Pause your hammering of me
1Job said:2Listen closely.
Maybe this will make you feel better.
3Just be patient and let me speak.
Then you can go back to hammering [1] me.
4My argument isn’t with other people.
It’s with God himself.
So naturally, I’m in a hurry. [2]
And I have every right to be impatient.
5Come on, look at me.
Then cover your mouth and try not to gag.
I’m a horrifying sight.
6When I forget what I look like,
Then suddenly remember,
My body quivers in horror.
Why are bad people lucky?
7Why do wicked people live so long?And why does life go so well for them?
8They live to see their children
Born, raised, and grown.
9They’re safe at home.
God isn’t beating them up.
10Their prize bulls breed on time.
The cows never miscarry.
11They send their children out to play
Like sending a flock into the field.
12Their children sing happy songs
To the music of tambourine, lyre, and flute.
13They live their lives in prosperity,
Then die peacefully and go to the grave. [3]
14These people tell God, “Go away.
We're not interested in you.
15Why should we serve the Almighty God
When we're doing just fine on our own?
What can prayer get us
That we don't already have?”
Job: God didn’t make bad people rich
16God didn’t make these people rich.They got rich on their own.
17How often do you see these people hurting,
Suffering tragedy, or dying horrifically?
When does God show them how angry he is?
18When have you seen them frantic and out of control,
Tossed about like straw in the wind
Or grain chaff blown away in a storm?
19I know what you say about that:
“God punishes the next generation.”
Well, God should punish the right generation.
Those who committed the sins
should pay the price.
20Let them feel the pain of accountability.
Let them see the end of life approaching.
Let them drink the wrath of Almighty God.
21After they're dead, what do they care
If God punishes their kids,
And the living suffer for the dead?
22Who can teach God anything? [4]
He judges everyone,
Even the most powerful among us.
23When it comes to the end of life
The rich die safe and secure,
24With breasts [5] full of milk,
And bone marrow moist and healthy.
25But others aren’t so lucky.
They die as bitter souls,
Who have never known what it’s like
To have enough of anything they needed.
26In the end, they both die.
And they lie in the dirt
Beneath a shifting quilt of worms.
Rich prince who never existed
27Now I know what you're thinking.I know how you're going to push back.
28You’ll ask me where the rich prince lives.
As though there used to be one,
and he suddenly disappeared.
29You need to get out more.
Ask people who have been around.
See what they know about rich people.
30They will tell you that rich people luck out,
That when something terrible happens,
They are the ones who escape.
31Who confronts these people
When they do something wrong?
Who holds them accountable
and makes them pay?
32Instead, when the time comes,
an entourage will carry them to their grave.
Guards [6] will stand watch over their tomb.
33The sweet valley earth
Will make them a fine grave.
Crowds, too many to count,
Will follow them in a procession. [7]
34So why do you try to console me
With your warped idea of how God works?
You’re clueless.
And your theology [8] is a lie.
Footnotes
The Hebrew word laag can also mean ridicule, mock, make fun of, scoff. It’s not an encouraging word.
What’s he in a hurry for? He doesn’t say. Some scholars say based on what he has said so far, he is in a hurry to confront God and to find out why God is crushing him with all these tragedies. But that is just an educated guess.
“Grave” is Sheol, a Hebrew word for the place of the dead, where no one ever comes back. Greeks later translated the word as “Hades.”
Some scholars say Job’s friends are saying this and telling Job he shouldn’t presume to tell God what to do. Others say this is Job telling his friends they should stop boxing up God, so he fits into their belief system, called the doctrine of retribution. This teaches that the righteous will prosper, and the wicked will suffer. The idea behind it is that the world is just, and that God’s rewards and punishments are a direct result of people’s actions and character. Job knows from personal experience that this isn’t always true. In his case, he did nothing to deserve the tragedies. Yet his visitors, Job seems to argue, insist that God comply with their understanding of how it all works. They’ve got the box and God needs to get in there.
The Hebrew word could also mean buckets. But there’s a long tradition for translating this as breasts. And it fits the context of a description of someone’s physical health.
These aren’t likely just honor guards, but guards watching for grave robbers. The dead people here were rich, and they may have taken some of it with them.
The end of the story for the wicked and the rich is that life was good. So, Job asks his visitors why they are trying to convince him God punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous. Job himself is evidence to the contrary. So are the dead rich people in his story.
Theology is the study of God and what he does. Job’s visitors said God punishes wicked people and rewards the righteous. But Job is innocent in this story yet seems horribly punished by the tragedies in his life. So Job’s visitors, with their theology of retribution (see note 21:22), have their heads screwed on backwards as far as Job is concerned.
Discussion Questions
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