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Job: God Will Punish the Wicked
In Job 21, Job answers people who expect the wicked to be punished in obvious ways. He asks them to listen carefully, then points to what he actually sees in life, death, and public opinion.
Understanding the passage
Listening in context
This passage is wisdom and dialogue, not a simple report of events. Job is replying to others who have spoken to him. He asks for a fair hearing, describes the apparent ease of wicked people, questions neat explanations about judgement, and ends by saying their answers contain falsehood.
Job 21:1–34Main takeaway
Job 21 argues that visible prosperity, suffering, or even an impressive burial does not give a simple rule for judging a person’s standing before God.
Look closely at the words
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Job asks to be heardJob begins by asking others to listen carefully and let that be their consolation. He wants freedom to speak first, even if they mock later.
Explanation
Job begins by asking others to listen carefully and let that be their consolation. He wants freedom to speak first, even if they mock later. His complaint is serious, not casual. He is troubled, and he calls for astonishment and silence instead of quick replies.
02The wicked may seem settled and strongJob asks why the wicked live on, grow old, and become mighty. He lists signs of security: children remain before them, houses are safe, animals thrive, children dance, and music fills their days.
Explanation
Job asks why the wicked live on, grow old, and become mighty. He lists signs of security: children remain before them, houses are safe, animals thrive, children dance, and music fills their days. Yet these same people tell God to depart and question any profit in serving or praying to him.
03Job resists a neat rule about judgementJob says the downfall of the wicked does not happen as often as some claim. He rejects the saying that a person’s iniquity is simply laid up for his children.
Explanation
Job says the downfall of the wicked does not happen as often as some claim. He rejects the saying that a person’s iniquity is simply laid up for his children. Instead, he says the person himself should know recompense. He also reminds his hearers that God judges those who are high.
04Different lives, the same dustJob contrasts one person dying in full strength, at ease and quiet, with another dying in bitterness and never tasting good.
Explanation
Job contrasts one person dying in full strength, at ease and quiet, with another dying in bitterness and never tasting good. Their lives look very different, but both lie down alike in the dust. Job then says he knows the thoughts and plans of those who are trying to prove him wrong.
05Public evidence still does not fit their ruleJob quotes their question about the ruined house of the wicked, then points to the evidence of travellers.
Explanation
Job quotes their question about the ruined house of the wicked, then points to the evidence of travellers. He says the evil man is reserved for a day of calamity and wrath, yet no one declares his way to his face or repays him publicly. He may even be carried to the grave with watchers at his tomb and many following after.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What does Job ask from his hearers before he makes his case?
02Which details does Job use to show that wicked people may appear secure and successful?
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Job 21:1–34
1Then Job answered,
2“Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.
3Allow me, and I also will speak. After I have spoken, mock on.
4As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn’t I be impatient?
5Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.
6When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.
7“Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?
8Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes.
9Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.
10Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.
11They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.
12They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.
13They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.
14They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.
15What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’
16Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes on them, that God distributes sorrows in his anger?
18How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?
19You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’ Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.
20Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21For what does he care for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
22“Shall any teach God knowledge, since he judges those who are high?
23One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
24His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.
25Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.
26They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them.
27“Behold, I know your thoughts, the plans with which you would wrong me.
28For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
29Haven’t you asked wayfaring men? Don’t you know their evidences,
30that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, that they are led out to the day of wrath?
31Who will declare his way to his face? Who will repay him what he has done?
32Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men will keep watch over the tomb.
33The clods of the valley will be sweet to him. All men will draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.
34So how can you comfort me with nonsense, because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”