Job 21:27-34

Futile Words, Deceptive Answers

21:27 “Yes, I know what you are thinking, ¹ 

the schemes ²  by which you would wrong me. ³ 

21:28 For you say,

‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, ⁴ 

and where are the tents in which the wicked lived?’ ⁵ 

21:29 Have you never questioned those who travel the roads?

Do you not recognize their accounts ⁶  –

21:30 that the evil man is spared

from the day of his misfortune,

that he is delivered ⁷ 

from the day of God’s wrath?

21:31 No one denounces his conduct to his face;

no one repays him for what ⁸  he has done. ⁹ 

21:32 And when he is carried to the tombs,

and watch is kept ¹⁰  over the funeral mound, ¹¹ 

21:33 The clods of the torrent valley ¹²  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!” ¹³ 

[21:27]  ¹ tn The word is “your thoughts.” The word for “thoughts” (from חָצַב [khatsav, “to think; to reckon; to plan”]) has more to do with their intent than their general thoughts. He knows that when they talked about the fate of the wicked they really were talking about him.

[21:27]  ² tn For the meaning of this word, and its root זָמַם (zamam), see Job 17:11. It usually means the “plans” or “schemes” that are concocted against someone.

[21:27]  ³ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 321) distinguishes the verb חָמַס (khamas) from the noun for “violence.” He proposes a meaning of “think, imagine”: “and the ideas you imagined about me.”

[21:28]  ⁴ sn The question implies the answer will be “vanished” or “gone.”

[21:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “And where is the tent, the dwellings of the wicked.” The word “dwellings of the wicked” is in apposition to “tent.” A relative pronoun must be supplied in the translation.

[21:29]  ⁶ tc The LXX reads, “Ask those who go by the way, and do not disown their signs.”

[21:30]  ⁷ tn The verb means “to be led forth.” To be “led forth in the day of trouble” means to be delivered.

[21:31]  ⁸ tn The expression “and he has done” is taken here to mean “what he has done.”

[21:31]  ⁹ 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.

[21:32]  ¹⁰ tn The verb says “he will watch.” The subject is unspecified, so the translation is passive.

[21:32]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew word refers to the tumulus, the burial mound that is erected on the spot where the person is buried.

[21:33]  ¹² 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.

[21:34]  ¹³ 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.