Text -- Job 21:31-34 (NET)

21:31 No one denounces his conduct to his face; no one repays him for what he has done. 21:32 And when he is carried to the tombs, and watch is kept over the funeral mound, 21:33 The clods of the torrent valley are sweet to him; behind him everybody follows in procession, and before him goes a countless throng. 21:34 So how can you console me with your futile words? Nothing is left of your answers but deception!”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Job 21:31

¹ tn The expression “and he has done” is taken here to mean “what he has done.”

² tn Heb “Who declares his way to his face? // Who repays him for what he has done?” These rhetorical questions, which expect a negative answer (“No one!”) have been translated as indicative statements to bring out their force clearly.

NET Notes: Job 21:32

¹ tn The verb says “he will watch.” The subject is unspecified, so the translation is passive.

² tn The Hebrew word refers to the tumulus, the burial mound that is erected on the spot where the person is buried.

NET Notes: Job 21:33

¹ tn The clods are those that are used to make a mound over the body. And, for a burial in the valley, see Deut 34:6. The verse here sees him as participating in his funeral and enjoying it. Nothing seems to go wrong with the wicked.

NET Notes: Job 21:34

¹ tn The word מָעַל (ma’al) is used for “treachery; deception; fraud.” Here Job is saying that their way of interpreting reality is dangerously unfaithful.