Discovery BoxJob 21:1-16
Context21:1 Then Job answered:
21:2 “Listen carefully 2 to my words;
let this be 3 the consolation you offer me. 4
21:3 Bear with me 5 and I 6 will speak,
and after I have spoken 7 you may mock. 8
21:4 Is my 9 complaint against a man? 10
If so, 11 why should I not be impatient? 12
21:5 Look 13 at me and be appalled;
put your hands over your mouths. 14
21:6 For, when I think 15 about this, I am terrified 16
and my body feels a shudder. 17
21:7 “Why do the wicked go on living, 18
grow old, 19 even increase in power?
21:8 Their children 20 are firmly established
in their presence, 21
their offspring before their eyes.
21:9 Their houses are safe 22 and without fear; 23
and no rod of punishment 24 from God is upon them. 25
21:10 Their bulls 26 breed 27 without fail; 28
their cows calve and do not miscarry.
21:11 They allow their children to run 29 like a flock;
their little ones dance about.
21:12 They sing 30 to the accompaniment of tambourine and harp,
and make merry to the sound of the flute.
21:13 They live out 31 their years in prosperity
and go down 32 to the grave 33 in peace.
21:14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us!
We do not want to 34 know your ways. 35
21:15 Who is the Almighty, that 36 we should serve him?
What would we gain
if we were to pray 37 to him?’ 38
21:16 But their prosperity is not their own doing. 39
The counsel of the wicked is far from me! 40
[21:1] 1 sn In this chapter Job actually answers the ideas of all three of his friends. Here Job finds the flaw in their argument – he can point to wicked people who prosper. But whereas in the last speech, when he looked on his suffering from the perspective of his innocence, he found great faith and hope, in this chapter when he surveys the divine government of the world, he sinks to despair. The speech can be divided into five parts: he appeals for a hearing (2-6), he points out the prosperity of the wicked (7-16), he wonders exactly when the godless suffer (17-22), he shows how death levels everything (23-26), and he reveals how experience contradicts his friends’ argument (27-34).
[21:2] 2 tn The intensity of the appeal is again expressed by the imperative followed by the infinitive absolute for emphasis. See note on “listen carefully” in 13:17.
[21:2] 3 tc The LXX negates the sentence, “that I may not have this consolation from you.”
[21:2] 4 tn The word תַּנְחוּמֹתֵיכֶם (tankhumotekhem) is literally “your consolations,” the suffix being a subjective genitive. The friends had thought they were offering Job consolation (Job 14:11), but the consolation he wants from them is that they listen to him and respond accordingly.
[21:3] 5 tn The verb נָשָׂא (nasa’) means “to lift up; to raise up”; but in this context it means “to endure; to tolerate” (see Job 7:21).
[21:3] 6 tn The conjunction and the independent personal pronoun draw emphatic attention to the subject of the verb: “and I on my part will speak.”
[21:3] 7 tn The adverbial clauses are constructed of the preposition “after” and the Piel infinitive construct with the subjective genitive suffix: “my speaking,” or “I speak.”
[21:3] 8 tn The verb is the imperfect of לָעַג (la’ag). The Hiphil has the same basic sense as the Qal, “to mock; to deride.” The imperfect here would be modal, expressing permission. The verb is in the singular, suggesting that Job is addressing Zophar; however, most of the versions put it into the plural. Note the singular in 16:3 between the plural in 16:1 and 16:4.
[21:4] 9 tn The addition of the independent pronoun at the beginning of the sentence (“Is it I / against a man / my complaint”) strengthens the pronominal suffix on “complaint” (see GKC 438 §135.f).
[21:4] 10 sn The point seems to be that if his complaint were merely against men he might expect sympathy from other men; but no one dares offer him sympathy when his complaint is against God. So he will give free expression to his spirit (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 147).
[21:4] 11 tn On disjunctive interrogatives, see GKC 475 §150.g.
[21:4] 12 tn Heb “why should my spirit/breath not be short” (see Num 21:4; Judg 16:16).
[21:5] 13 tn The verb פְּנוּ (pÿnu) is from the verb “to turn,” related to the word for “face.” In calling for them to turn toward him, he is calling for them to look at him. But here it may be more in the sense of their attention rather than just a looking at him.
[21:5] 14 tn The idiom is “put a hand over a mouth,” the natural gesture for keeping silent and listening (cf. Job 29:9; 40:4; Mic 7:16).
[21:6] 15 tn The verb is זָכַר (zakhar, “to remember”). Here it has the sense of “to keep in memory; to meditate; to think upon.”
[21:6] 16 tn The main clause is introduced here by the conjunction, following the adverbial clause of time.
[21:6] 17 tn Some commentators take “shudder” to be the subject of the verb, “a shudder seizes my body.” But the word is feminine (and see the usage, especially in Job 9:6 and 18:20). It is the subject in Isa 21:4; Ps 55:6; and Ezek 7:18.
[21:7] 18 sn A. B. Davidson (Job, 154) clarifies that Job’s question is of a universal scope. In the government of God, why do the wicked exist at all? The verb could be translated “continue to live.”
[21:7] 19 tn The verb עָתַק (’ataq) means “to move; to proceed; to advance.” Here it is “to advance in years” or “to grow old.” This clause could serve as an independent clause, a separate sentence; but it more likely continues the question of the first colon and is parallel to the verb “live.”
[21:8] 20 tn Heb “their seed.”
[21:8] 21 tn The text uses לִפְנֵיהֶם עִמָּם (lifnehem ’immam, “before them, with them”). Many editors think that these were alternative readings, and so omit one or the other. Dhorme moved עִמָּם (’immam) to the second half of the verse and emended it to read עֹמְדִים (’omÿdim, “abide”). Kissane and Gordis changed only the vowels and came up with עַמָּם (’ammam, “their kinfolk”). But Gordis thinks the presence of both of them in the line is evidence of a conflated reading (p. 229).
[21:9] 22 tn The word שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace, safety”) is here a substantive after a plural subject (see GKC 452 §141.c, n. 3).
[21:9] 23 tn The form מִפָּחַד (mippakhad) is translated “without fear,” literally “from fear”; the preposition is similar to the alpha privative in Greek. The word “fear, dread” means nothing that causes fear or dread – they are peaceful, secure. See GKC 382 §119.w.
[21:9] 24 tn Heb “no rod of God.” The words “punishment from” have been supplied in the translation to make the metaphor understandable for the modern reader by stating the purpose of the rod.
[21:9] 25 sn In 9:34 Job was complaining that there was no umpire to remove God’s rod from him, but here he observes no such rod is on the wicked.
[21:10] 26 tn Heb “his bull,” but it is meant to signify the bulls of the wicked.
[21:10] 27 tn The verb used here means “to impregnate,” and not to be confused with the verb עָבַר (’avar, “to pass over”).
[21:10] 28 tn The use of the verb גָּעַר (ga’ar) in this place is interesting. It means “to rebuke; to abhor; to loathe.” In the causative stem it means “to occasion impurity” or “to reject as loathsome.” The rabbinic interpretation is that it does not emit semen in vain, and so the meaning is it does not fail to breed (see E. Dhorme, Job, 311; R. Gordis, Job, 229).
[21:11] 29 tn The verb שָׁלַח (shalakh) means “to send forth,” but in the Piel “to release; to allow to run free.” The picture of children frolicking in the fields and singing and dancing is symbolic of peaceful, prosperous times.
[21:12] 30 tn The verb is simply “they take up [or lift up],” but the understood object is “their voices,” and so it means “they sing.”
[21:13] 31 tc The Kethib has “they wear out” but the Qere and the versions have יְכַלּוּ (yÿkhallu, “bring to an end”). The verb כָּלָה (kalah) means “to finish; to complete,” and here with the object “their days,” it means that they bring their life to a (successful) conclusion. Both readings are acceptable in the context, with very little difference in the overall meaning (which according to Gordis is proof the Qere does not always correct the Kethib).
[21:13] 32 tc The MT has יֵחָתּוּ (yekhattu, “they are frightened [or broken]”), taking the verb from חָתַת (khatat, “be terrified”). But most would slightly repoint it to יֵחָתוּ (yekhatu), an Aramaism, “they go down,” from נָחַת (nakhat, “go down”). See Job 17:16.
[21:13] 33 tn The word רֶגַע (rega’) has been interpreted as “in a moment” or “in peace” (on the basis of Arabic raja`a, “return to rest”). Gordis thinks this is a case of talhin – both meanings present in the mind of the writer.
[21:14] 34 tn The absence of the preposition before the complement adds greater vividness to the statement: “and knowing your ways – we do not desire.”
[21:14] 35 sn Contrast Ps 25:4, which affirms that walking in God’s ways means to obey God’s will – the Torah.
[21:15] 36 tn The interrogative clause is followed by ki, similar to Exod 5:2, “Who is Yahweh, that I should obey him?”
[21:15] 37 tn The verb פָּגַע (paga’) means “to encounter; to meet,” but also “to meet with request; to intercede; to interpose.” The latter meaning is a derived meaning by usage.
[21:15] 38 tn The verse is not present in the LXX. It may be that it was considered too blasphemous and therefore omitted.
[21:16] 39 tn Heb “is not in their hand.”
[21:16] 40 sn Even though their life seems so good in contrast to his own plight, Job cannot and will not embrace their principles – “far be from me their counsel.”
