Job 21:7

21:7-16 Job says, Remarkable judgments are sometimes brought upon notorious sinners, but not always. Wherefore is it so? This is the day of God's patience; and, in some way or other, he makes use of the prosperity of the wicked to serve his own counsels, while it ripens them for ruin; but the chief reason is, because he will make it appear there is another world. These prospering sinners make light of God and religion, as if because they have so much of this world, they had no need to look after another. But religion is not a vain thing. If it be so to us, we may thank ourselves for resting on the outside of it. Job shows their folly.

Job 21:7 . Wherefore do the wicked live? — That is, long and happily: become old? — Namely, in their prosperous state: yea, are mighty in power? — Are preferred to places of authority and trust, and not only make a great figure, but bear a great sway? Now, if things be as you say, how comes this to pass? Wherefore does the righteous God distribute things so unequally? “The description, which follows, of a prosperous estate is such as might, indeed, justly create envy, were a wicked man, in any state, to be envied; for we have here the chief ingredients of human happiness, as it respects this life, brought together and described in terms exactly suiting the simplicity of manners, and the way of living in Job’s time and country, as, first, security and safety to themselves and families; Job 21:9 . Their houses are safe from fear — Of the incursions of robbers, we may suppose, or the depredations of the neighbouring clans, so usual in those ancient times, and of which Job had felt the mischievous effects. Next health, or a freedom from diseases, called in the language of that age, the rod of God. See 1 Samuel 26:10 . To this is added plenty of cattle, the riches of those times; Job 21:10 . Next comes a numerous and hopeful offspring; and what a rural picture has he drawn of them! Job 21:11 . They send forth their little ones like a flock — Of sheep or goats, as the word signifies, in great numbers, and with sweet concord, which is a singular delight to them and their parents.

They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe; Job 21:12 . Lastly, and to crown all, after a prosperous and pleasant life comes an easy death. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave — That is, their days pass on in a continual flow of prosperity, till they drop into the grave without a groan.

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.

7 . Wherefore do the wicked live ] The question scarcely means, How is it, if your principles be true, that the wicked live? Job’s mind is engrossed with the great problem itself, and he asks, Why in the government of a righteous God do the wicked live? They not only live, they live to old age, and wax mighty in the earth. 7–16 . The mystery is, Why do the wicked prosper? They live long, they see their children grow up, and their homes are peaceful ( Job 21:7-9 ). Their cattle thrives ( Job 21:10 ). Their children and they pass a mirthful life with music and dance ( Job 21:11-12 ). And with no pain at last they die, though they had openly renounced God ( Job 21:13-15 ). Yet it is God who bestows this prosperity upon them ( Job 21:16 ). 7–21 . This great mystery of the prosperity of the wicked in God’s providence Job now unfolds on both its sides: first, they and all belonging to them prosper, and they die in peace, although in conscious godlessness they bade the Almighty depart from them, Job 21:7-16 ; and second, negatively, examples of calamity befalling them are few, Job 21:17-21 .

Verse 7. - Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Job asks for an explanation of the facts which his own experience has impressed upon him. He has seen that "the wicked live" quite as long as the righteous, that in many cases they attain to a ripe old age, and become among the powerful of the earth. The great "pyramid kings" of Egypt, whose cruel oppressions were remembered down to the time of Herodotus (Herod., 2:124-128), reigned respectively, according to Egyptian tradition, sixty-three and sixty-six years(Manetho ap. Euseb., 'Chronicles Can.,' pars 2.). Rameses II., the cruel oppressor of the Jews, and the Pharaoh from whom Moses fled, had a reign of sixty-seven years ('Hist. of Ancient Egypt,' vol. 2. p. 301). Job 21:7

He expostulates this matter partly with his friends, If things be as you say, how comes this to pass, &c? partly with God himself, Wherefore doth the righteous God distribute things so unequally? The wicked live, to wit, long and happily; as living is oft taken, as Leviticus 18:5 1 Samuel 10:24 25:6 Psalm 38:19 ; a painful and afflicted life being a kind of death, and oft so called, as Deu 30:15,19 Pr 15:10 19:16 1 Corinthians 3:22 15:31 . Become old, to wit, in their prosperous estate.

Wherefore do the wicked live? - Job comes now to the main design of his argument in this chapter, to show that it is a fact, that the wicked often have great prosperity; that they are not treated in this life according to their character; and that it is not a fact that men of eminent wickedness, as his friends maintained, would meet, in this life, with proportionate sufferings. He says, that the fact is, that they enjoy great prosperity; that they live to a great age; and that they are surrounded with the comforts of life in an eminent degree. The meaning is, "If you are positive that the wicked are treated according to their character in this life - that great wickedness is followed by great judgments, how is it to be accounted for that they live, and grow old, and are mighty in power?" Job assumes the fact to be so, and proceeds to argue as if that were indisputable. It is remarkable, that the fact was not adverted to at an earlier period of the debate. It would have done much to settle the controversy. The "question," "Why do the wicked live?" is one of great importance at all times, and one which it is natural to ask, but which it is not even yet always easy to answer. "Some" points are clear, and may be easily suggested.

They are such as these - They live (1) to show the forbearance and long suffering of God; (2) to furnish a full illustration of the character of the human heart; (3) to afford them ample space for repentance, so that there shall not be the semblance of a ground of complaint when they are called before God, and are condemned; (4) because God intends to make some of them the monuments of his mercy, and more fully to display the riches of his grace in their conversion, as he did in the case of Paul, Augustine, John Bunyan, and John Newton; (5) they may be preserved to be the instruments of his executing some important purpose by them, as was the case with Pharaoh, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar; or, (6) he keeps them, that the great interests of society may be carried on; that the affairs of the commercial and the political world may be forwarded by their skill and talent. For some, or all of these purposes, it may be, the wicked are kept in the land of the living, and are favored with great external prosperity, while many a Christian is oppressed, afflicted, and crushed to the dust. Of the "fact," there can be no doubt; of the "reasons" for the fact, there will be a fuller development in the future world than there can be now. Become old - The friends of Job had maintained that the wicked would be cut off. Job, on the other hand, affirms that they live on to old age.