Job 21:31-34

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

no one repays him for what ¹  he has done. ² 

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

and watch is kept ³  over the funeral mound, ⁴ 

21:33 The clods of the torrent valley ⁵  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!” ⁶ 

[21:31]  ¹ tn The expression “and he has done” is taken here to mean “what he has done.”

[21:31]  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.

[21:32]  ³ tn The verb says “he will watch.” The subject is unspecified, so the translation is passive.

[21:32]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew word refers to the tumulus, the burial mound that is erected on the spot where the person is buried.

[21:33]  ⁵ 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]  ⁷ 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.