Morning Bible Study: Job 21:27-34

27 I know your thoughts very well,

the schemes by which you would wrong me.

28 For you say, “Where now is the nobleman’s house?”

and “Where are the tents the wicked lived in?”

29 Have you never consulted those who travel the roads?

Don’t you accept their reports?

30 Indeed, the evil person is spared from the day of disaster,

rescued from the day of wrath.

31 Who would denounce his behavior to his face?

Who would repay him for what he has done?

32 He is carried to the grave,

and someone keeps watch over his tomb.

33 The dirt on his grave is sweet to him.

Everyone follows behind him,

and those who go before him are without number.

34 So how can you offer me such futile comfort?

Your answers are deceptive.

Commentary

(the following is from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, 1706 -- www.christianity.com) 

"Job opposes the opinion of his friends, That the wicked are sure to fall into visible and remarkable ruin, and none but the wicked; upon which principle they condemned Job as wicked. Turn to whom you will, you will find that the punishment of sinners is designed more for the other world than for this, Jude 1:14,15. The sinner is here supposed to live in a great deal of power. The sinner shall have a splendid funeral: a poor thing for any man to be proud of the prospect of. He shall have a stately monument. And a valley with springs of water to keep the turf green, was accounted an honorable burial place among eastern people; but such things are vain distinctions. Death closes his prosperity. 

It is but a poor encouragement to die, that others have died before us. That which makes a man die with true courage, is, with faith to remember that Jesus Christ died and was laid in the grave, not only before us, but for us. That He has gone before us, and died for us, who is alive and lives for us, is true consolation in the hour of death."

Morning Bible Study: Job 21:17-26

17 How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
Does disaster come on them?
Does he apportion destruction in his anger?
18 Are they like straw before the wind,
like chaff a storm sweeps away?
19 God reserves a person’s punishment for his children.
Let God repay the person himself, so that he may know it.
20 Let his own eyes see his demise;
let him drink from the Almighty’s wrath!
21 For what does he care about his family once he is dead,
when the number of his months has run out?
22 Can anyone teach God knowledge,
since he judges the exalted ones?
23 One person dies in excellent health,
completely secure and at ease.
24 His body is well fed,
and his bones are full of marrow.
25 Yet another person dies with a bitter soul,
having never tasted prosperity.
26 But they both lie in the dust,
and worms cover them.

Commentary
(the following is from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, 1706 -- www.christianity.com) 

"Job had described the prosperity of wicked people; in these verses he opposes this to what his friends had maintained about their certain ruin in this life. He reconciles this to the holiness and justice of God. Even while they prosper, they are light and worthless, of no account with God, or with wise men. In the height of their pomp and power, there is but a step between them and ruin. 

Job refers the difference Providence makes between one wicked man and another, into the wisdom of God. He is Judge of all the earth, and he will do right. So vast is the disproportion between time and eternity, that if hell be the lot of every sinner at last, it makes little difference if one goes singing, and another sighing. If one wicked man dies in a palace, and another in a dungeon, the worm that dies not, and the fire that is not quenched, will be the same to them. These differences in this world are not worth perplexing ourselves about."