Job 21

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8 passages from writers of 3 traditions, in their own words, each with their dates and tradition. The site doesn’t say who is right: read them beside the verses. About these

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• Gregory the Greatc. 540–604Early church, WestMorals on the Book of Job · on Job 21:7–13For except the patience of God bore with them, they would never live long in their sins. … Their ‘houses are secure and at peace,’ in that they live on committing sin, they do things to be mourned over, and they never leave their joys. And the ‘rod’ of discipline from Above ‘does not smite them,’ and they go on the more unrestrainedly in sin, in proportion as they are punished less for sin. … But the friends of blessed Job, who believed him to be unrighteous on this account that they saw him afflicted with scourges, rightly have the truth shewn them by the voice of that holy man concerning the blooming and ruin of the wicked, in that prosperity in the present life is no witness to innocency, since many are brought back to everlasting life by scourges, and very many die without a scourge to be dragged to infinite woes.

  For except the patience of God bore with them, they would never live long in their sins. … Their ‘houses are secure and at peace,’ in that they live on committing sin, they do things to be mourned over, and they never leave their joys. And the ‘rod’ of discipline from Above ‘does not smite them,’ and they go on the more unrestrainedly in sin, in proportion as they are punished less for sin. … But the friends of blessed Job, who believed him to be unrighteous on this account that they saw him afflicted with scourges, rightly have the truth shewn them by the voice of that holy man concerning the blooming and ruin of the wicked, in that prosperity in the present life is no witness to innocency, since many are brought back to everlasting life by scourges, and very many die without a scourge to be dragged to infinite woes.

  Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, book 15, on 21:7–13; translated in the Library of the Fathers (Oxford, 1844–1850); the text of Lectionary Central. The edition

  Bishop of Rome from 590, whose Morals on the Book of Job and sermons on the Gospels were read across the medieval church.

• Gregory the Greatc. 540–604Early church, WestMorals on the Book of Job · on Job 21:14–15To say this in words even foolish men have not the boldness, yet all wicked persons say to God, not by their words but by their ways, Depart from us. For they that do those things which Almighty God forbids, what else are they doing but shutting up their soul against the Almighty. For just as to think of His precepts, is to introduce Him into one’s self, so to resist His commandments is to keep Him away from the dwelling-place of the heart. … When, in praying, God is not the object we seek, the mind is soon wearied in praying, in that when a man asks those things, which it may be that God of His secret counsel refuses to bestow, He is Himself brought into loathing, Who will not give the thing which is loved.

  To say this in words even foolish men have not the boldness, yet all wicked persons say to God, not by their words but by their ways, Depart from us. For they that do those things which Almighty God forbids, what else are they doing but shutting up their soul against the Almighty. For just as to think of His precepts, is to introduce Him into one’s self, so to resist His commandments is to keep Him away from the dwelling-place of the heart. … When, in praying, God is not the object we seek, the mind is soon wearied in praying, in that when a man asks those things, which it may be that God of His secret counsel refuses to bestow, He is Himself brought into loathing, Who will not give the thing which is loved.

  Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, book 15, on 21:14–15; translated in the Library of the Fathers (Oxford, 1844–1850); the text of Lectionary Central. The edition

  Bishop of Rome from 590, whose Morals on the Book of Job and sermons on the Gospels were read across the medieval church.

• Gregory the Greatc. 540–604Early church, WestMorals on the Book of Job · on Job 21:23–26These things being so, who may investigate the secrets of Almighty God, to find out wherefore He permits them so to be? Now to the Elect and the Lost, their life indeed is unlike, but the corruption of the flesh in death is no way unlike. … What wonder then if those persons for a moment run a course unlike in the prosperity and adversity of this world, who through the corruption of the flesh return alike to the earth? So that life alone is to be thought on, wherein together with the resurrection of the flesh there is the arrival at an unlike end of recompensing. For what is ‘strength and ease’ to the wicked, what ‘marrow and riches,’ seeing that all is left here in a moment, and There that retribution, which may never be left, is found? For as the mirth of this wicked one passes on to woe, so the woe of the innocent soul in affliction passes on to joy. So neither ought riches to lift up the soul, nor poverty to disturb it.

  These things being so, who may investigate the secrets of Almighty God, to find out wherefore He permits them so to be? Now to the Elect and the Lost, their life indeed is unlike, but the corruption of the flesh in death is no way unlike. … What wonder then if those persons for a moment run a course unlike in the prosperity and adversity of this world, who through the corruption of the flesh return alike to the earth? So that life alone is to be thought on, wherein together with the resurrection of the flesh there is the arrival at an unlike end of recompensing. For what is ‘strength and ease’ to the wicked, what ‘marrow and riches,’ seeing that all is left here in a moment, and There that retribution, which may never be left, is found? For as the mirth of this wicked one passes on to woe, so the woe of the innocent soul in affliction passes on to joy. So neither ought riches to lift up the soul, nor poverty to disturb it.

  Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, book 15, on 21:23–26; translated in the Library of the Fathers (Oxford, 1844–1850); the text of Lectionary Central. The edition

  Bishop of Rome from 590, whose Morals on the Book of Job and sermons on the Gospels were read across the medieval church.

• Maimonides1138–1204JewishThe Guide for the Perplexed · on Job 21:6–26He further confirms this view in the following passage: “One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. His vessels are full of milk, etc. And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them” (ibid. xxi. 23–26). In a similar manner he shows the good condition and prosperity of wicked people; and is even very explicit on this point. He speaks thus: “Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh. Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Their seed is established in their sight with them,” etc. (ibid. 6–8). Having thus described their prosperity, he addresses his opponents, and says to them: “Granted that as you think, the children of this prosperous atheist will perish after his death, and their memory will be blotted out, what harm will the fate of his family cause him after his death? For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?” (ibid. 21).

  He further confirms this view in the following passage: “One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. His vessels are full of milk, etc. And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them” (ibid. xxi. 23–26). In a similar manner he shows the good condition and prosperity of wicked people; and is even very explicit on this point. He speaks thus: “Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh. Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Their seed is established in their sight with them,” etc. (ibid. 6–8). Having thus described their prosperity, he addresses his opponents, and says to them: “Granted that as you think, the children of this prosperous atheist will perish after his death, and their memory will be blotted out, what harm will the fate of his family cause him after his death? For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?” (ibid. 21).

  Maimonides, The Guide for the Perplexed, part III, chapter 23 (“this view” is Job’s: that the righteous and the wicked are equal before God); translated by M. Friedländer (second edition, London, 1904; the text of Project Gutenberg). The edition

  Rabbi Moses ben Maimon of Córdoba and Cairo, physician and philosopher, whose Guide for the Perplexed reads the Bible's hardest passages with the philosophy of his day.

• Matthew Henry1662–1714English PresbyterianCommentary on the Whole Bible · on Job 21:7All Job's three friends, in their last discourses, had been very copious in describing the miserable condition of a wicked man in this world. "It is true," says Job, "remarkable judgments are sometimes brought upon notorious sinners, but not always; for we have many instances of the great and long prosperity of those that are openly and avowedly wicked; though they are hardened in their wickedness by their prosperity, yet they are still suffered to prosper." … Now wherefore is it so? Note, It is worth while to enquire into the reasons of the outward prosperity of wicked people. It is not because God has forsaken the earth, because he does not see, or does not hate, or cannot punish their wickedness; but it is because the measure of their iniquities is not full. This is the day of God's patience, and, in some way or other, he makes use of them and their prosperity to serve his own counsels, while it ripens them for ruin; but the chief reason is because he will make it to appear there is another world which is the world of retribution, and not this.

  All Job's three friends, in their last discourses, had been very copious in describing the miserable condition of a wicked man in this world. "It is true," says Job, "remarkable judgments are sometimes brought upon notorious sinners, but not always; for we have many instances of the great and long prosperity of those that are openly and avowedly wicked; though they are hardened in their wickedness by their prosperity, yet they are still suffered to prosper." … Now wherefore is it so? Note, It is worth while to enquire into the reasons of the outward prosperity of wicked people. It is not because God has forsaken the earth, because he does not see, or does not hate, or cannot punish their wickedness; but it is because the measure of their iniquities is not full. This is the day of God's patience, and, in some way or other, he makes use of them and their prosperity to serve his own counsels, while it ripens them for ruin; but the chief reason is because he will make it to appear there is another world which is the world of retribution, and not this.

  Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 21:7–16; 1706–1714; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition

  An English Presbyterian minister whose commentary on the whole Bible Protestants have read for three centuries.

• John Wesley1703–1791MethodistExplanatory Notes upon the Old Testament · on Job 21:25–26Another - Another wicked man. So there is a great variety of God's dispensations; he distributes great prosperity to one, and great afflictions to another, according to his wise but secret counsel. … Alike - All these worldly differences are ended by death, and they lie in the grave without any distinction. So that no man can tell who is good, and who is bad by events which befall them in this life.

  Another - Another wicked man. So there is a great variety of God's dispensations; he distributes great prosperity to one, and great afflictions to another, according to his wise but secret counsel. … Alike - All these worldly differences are ended by death, and they lie in the grave without any distinction. So that no man can tell who is good, and who is bad by events which befall them in this life.

  John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, on 21:25–26; Bristol, 1765. The edition

  The Anglican priest who began the Methodist movement; his notes on the Bible were written for ordinary readers.

• Jamieson, Fausset and Brownpublished 1871Presbyterian and AnglicanA Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments · on Job 21:29–30Job, seeing that the friends will not admit him as an impartial judge, as they consider his calamities prove his guilt, begs them to ask the opinion of travellers (Lam 1:12), who have the experience drawn from observation, and who are no way connected with him. … Their testimony (referring perhaps to those who had visited the region where Abraham who enjoyed a revelation then lived) is that "the wicked is (now) spared (reserved) against the day of destruction (hereafter)." … Job does not deny sinners' future punishment, but their punishment in this life. They have their "good things" now. Hereafter, their lot, and that of the godly, shall be reversed (Luk 16:25). Job, by the Spirit, often utters truths which solve the difficulty under which he labored. His afflictions mostly clouded his faith, else he would have seen the solution furnished by his own words.

  Job, seeing that the friends will not admit him as an impartial judge, as they consider his calamities prove his guilt, begs them to ask the opinion of travellers (Lam 1:12), who have the experience drawn from observation, and who are no way connected with him. … Their testimony (referring perhaps to those who had visited the region where Abraham who enjoyed a revelation then lived) is that "the wicked is (now) spared (reserved) against the day of destruction (hereafter)." … Job does not deny sinners' future punishment, but their punishment in this life. They have their "good things" now. Hereafter, their lot, and that of the godly, shall be reversed (Luk 16:25). Job, by the Spirit, often utters truths which solve the difficulty under which he labored. His afflictions mostly clouded his faith, else he would have seen the solution furnished by his own words.

  Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments, on 21:29–30; 1871; the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition

  Three ministers, two Scottish Presbyterians and an Irish Anglican, whose commentary on the whole Bible was written to be short and plain.

• Keil and Delitzsch1807–1888 and 1813–1890LutheranBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament · on Job 21:7–34If we compare Zophar's and Job's speeches one with another, we are obliged to say, that relatively the greater right is on the side of Job. True, the Scriptures confirm what Zophar says of the destruction of the evil-doer in innumerable passages … The speeches of Zophar and of Job are both true and false, - both one-sided, and therefore mutually supplementary. The real final end of the evil-doer is indeed none other than Zophar describes; and the temporal prosperity of the evil-doer, lasting often until death, is really a frequent phenomenon. … For it is truer that the retributive justice of God is often, but by far not always, revealed in the present world and outwardly, than that it never becomes manifest. … Wherein, then, does Job's sin in this speech consist? Herein, that he altogether ignores the palpably just distribution of human destinies, which does occur frequently enough.

  If we compare Zophar's and Job's speeches one with another, we are obliged to say, that relatively the greater right is on the side of Job. True, the Scriptures confirm what Zophar says of the destruction of the evil-doer in innumerable passages … The speeches of Zophar and of Job are both true and false, - both one-sided, and therefore mutually supplementary. The real final end of the evil-doer is indeed none other than Zophar describes; and the temporal prosperity of the evil-doer, lasting often until death, is really a frequent phenomenon. … For it is truer that the retributive justice of God is often, but by far not always, revealed in the present world and outwardly, than that it never becomes manifest. … Wherein, then, does Job's sin in this speech consist? Herein, that he altogether ignores the palpably just distribution of human destinies, which does occur frequently enough.

  Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, after 21:34, comparing Zophar’s speech with Job’s; translated by James Martin and others (Edinburgh, 1866–1891); the text of the Free Use Bible API. The edition

  Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, two German Lutheran scholars of Hebrew whose commentary on the Old Testament is still read for its learning.