Job 21:7-15

The Wicked Prosper

21:7 “Why do the wicked go on living, ¹ 

grow old, ²  even increase in power?

21:8 Their children ³  are firmly established

in their presence, ⁴ 

their offspring before their eyes.

21:9 Their houses are safe ⁵  and without fear; ⁶ 

and no rod of punishment ⁷  from God is upon them. ⁸ 

21:10 Their bulls ⁹  breed ¹⁰  without fail; ¹¹ 

their cows calve and do not miscarry.

21:11 They allow their children to run ¹²  like a flock;

their little ones dance about.

21:12 They sing ¹³  to the accompaniment of tambourine and harp,

and make merry to the sound of the flute.

21:13 They live out ¹⁴  their years in prosperity

and go down ¹⁵  to the grave ¹⁶  in peace.

21:14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us!

We do not want to ¹⁷  know your ways. ¹⁸ 

21:15 Who is the Almighty, that ¹⁹  we should serve him?

What would we gain

if we were to pray ²⁰  to him?’ ²¹ 

Psalms 37:35-36

37:35 I have seen ruthless evil men ²² 

growing in influence, like a green tree grows in its native soil. ²³ 

37:36 But then one passes by, and suddenly they have disappeared! ²⁴ 

I looked for them, but they could not be found.

Psalms 73:3-12

73:3 For I envied those who are proud,

as I observed ²⁵  the prosperity ²⁶  of the wicked.

73:4 For they suffer no pain; ²⁷ 

their bodies ²⁸  are strong and well-fed. ²⁹ 

73:5 They are immune to the trouble common to men;

they do not suffer as other men do. ³⁰ 

73:6 Arrogance is their necklace, ³¹ 

and violence their clothing. ³² 

73:7 Their prosperity causes them to do wrong; ³³ 

their thoughts are sinful. ³⁴ 

73:8 They mock ³⁵  and say evil things; ³⁶ 

they proudly threaten violence. ³⁷ 

73:9 They speak as if they rule in heaven,

and lay claim to the earth. ³⁸ 

73:10 Therefore they have more than enough food to eat,

and even suck up the water of the sea. ³⁹ 

73:11 They say, “How does God know what we do?

Is the sovereign one aware of what goes on?” ⁴⁰ 

73:12 Take a good look! This is what the wicked are like, ⁴¹ 

those who always have it so easy and get richer and richer. ⁴² 

[21:7]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “their seed.”

[21:8]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn The word שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace, safety”) is here a substantive after a plural subject (see GKC 452 §141.c, n. 3).

[21:9]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “his bull,” but it is meant to signify the bulls of the wicked.

[21:10]  ¹⁰ tn The verb used here means “to impregnate,” and not to be confused with the verb עָבַר (’avar, “to pass over”).

[21:10]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ sn Contrast Ps 25:4, which affirms that walking in God’s ways means to obey God’s will – the Torah.

[21:15]  ¹⁹ tn The interrogative clause is followed by ki, similar to Exod 5:2, “Who is Yahweh, that I should obey him?”

[21:15]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn The verse is not present in the LXX. It may be that it was considered too blasphemous and therefore omitted.

[37:35]  ²² tn The Hebrew uses the representative singular again here.

[37:35]  ²³ tn Heb “being exposed [?] like a native, luxuriant.” The Hebrew form מִתְעָרֶה (mit’areh) appears to be a Hitpael participle from עָרָה (’arah, “be exposed”), but this makes no sense in this context. Perhaps the form is a dialectal variant of מִתְעָלָה (“giving oneself an air of importance”; see Jer 51:3), from עָלָה (’alah, “go up”; see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 296). The noun אֶזְרָח (’ezrakh, “native, full citizen”) refers elsewhere to people, but here, where it is collocated with “luxuriant, green,” it probably refers to a tree growing in native soil.

[37:36]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and he passes by and, look, he is not [there].” The subject of the verb “passes by” is probably indefinite, referring to any passerby. Some prefer to change the form to first person, “and I passed by” (cf. NEB; note the first person verbal forms in preceding verse and in the following line).

[73:3]  ²⁵ tn The imperfect verbal form here depicts the action as continuing in a past time frame.

[73:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “peace” (שָׁלוֹם, shalom).

[73:4]  ²⁷ tn In Isa 58:6, the only other occurrence of this word in the OT, the term refers to “bonds” or “ropes.” In Ps 73:4 it is used metaphorically of pain and suffering that restricts one’s enjoyment of life.

[73:4]  ²⁸ tn Or “bellies.”

[73:4]  ²⁹ tc Or “fat.” The MT of v. 4 reads as follows: “for there are no pains at their death, and fat [is] their body.” Since a reference to the death of the wicked seems incongruous in the immediate context (note v. 5) and premature in the argument of the psalm (see vv. 18-20, 27), some prefer to emend the text by redividing it. The term לְמוֹתָם (lÿmotam,“at their death”) is changed to לָמוֹ תָּם (lamo tam, “[there are no pains] to them, strong [and fat are their bodies]”). The term תָּם (tam, “complete; sound”) is used of physical beauty in Song 5:2; 6:9. This emendation is the basis for the present translation. However, in defense of the MT (the traditional Hebrew text), one may point to an Aramaic inscription from Nerab which views a painful death as a curse and a nonpainful death in one’s old age as a sign of divine favor. See ANET 661.

[73:5]  ³⁰ tn Heb “in the trouble of man they are not, and with mankind they are not afflicted.”

[73:6]  ³¹ sn Arrogance is their necklace. The metaphor suggests that their arrogance is something the wicked “wear” proudly. It draws attention to them, just as a beautiful necklace does to its owner.

[73:6]  ³² tn Heb “a garment of violence covers them.” The metaphor suggests that violence is habitual for the wicked. They “wear” it like clothing; when one looks at them, violence is what one sees.

[73:7]  ³³ tc The MT reads “it goes out from fatness their eye,” which might be paraphrased, “their eye protrudes [or “bulges”] because of fatness.” This in turn might refer to their greed; their eyes “bug out” when they see rich food or produce (the noun חֵלֶב [khelev, “fatness”] sometimes refers to such food or produce). However, when used with the verb יָצָא (yatsa’, “go out”) the preposition מִן (“from”) more naturally indicates source. For this reason it is preferable to emend עֵינֵמוֹ (’enemo, “their eye”) to עֲוֹנָמוֹ, (’avonamo, “their sin”) and read, “and their sin proceeds forth from fatness,” that is, their prosperity gives rise to their sinful attitudes. If one follows this textual reading, another interpretive option is to take חֵלֶב (“fatness”) in the sense of “unreceptive, insensitive” (see its use in Ps 17:10). In this case, the sin of the wicked proceeds forth from their spiritual insensitivity.

[73:7]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the thoughts of [their] heart [i.e., mind] cross over” (i.e., violate God’s moral boundary, see Ps 17:3).

[73:8]  ³⁵ tn The verb מוּק (muq, “mock”) occurs only here in the OT.

[73:8]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and speak with evil.”

[73:8]  ³⁷ tn Heb “oppression from an elevated place they speak.” The traditional accentuation of the MT places “oppression” with the preceding line. In this case, one might translate, “they mock and speak with evil [of] oppression, from an elevated place [i.e., “proudly”] they speak.” By placing “oppression” with what follows, one achieves better poetic balance in the parallelism.

[73:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “they set in heaven their mouth, and their tongue walks through the earth.” The meaning of the text is uncertain. Perhaps the idea is that they lay claim to heaven (i.e., speak as if they were ruling in heaven) and move through the earth declaring their superiority and exerting their influence. Some take the preposition -בְּ (bet) the first line as adversative and translate, “they set their mouth against heaven,” that is, they defy God.

[73:10]  ³⁹ tc Heb “therefore his people return [so Qere (marginal reading); Kethib (consonantal text) has “he brings back”] to here, and waters of abundance are sucked up by them.” The traditional Hebrew text (MT) defies explanation. The present translation reflects M. Dahood’s proposed emendations (Psalms [AB], 2:190) and reads the Hebrew text as follows: לָכֵן יִשְׂבְעוּם לֶחֶם וּמֵי מָלֵא יָמֹצּוּ לָמוֹ (“therefore they are filled with food, and waters of abundance they suck up for themselves”). The reading יִשְׂבְעוּם לֶחֶם (yisvÿ’um lekhem, “they are filled with food”) assumes (1) an emendation of יָשׁיּב עַמּוֹ (yashyyv, “he will bring back his people”) to יִשְׂבְעוּם (yisvÿ’um, “they will be filled”; a Qal imperfect third masculine plural form from שָׂבַע [sava’] with enclitic mem [ם]), and (2) an emendation of הֲלֹם (halom, “to here”) to לֶחֶם (“food”). The expression “be filled/fill with food” appears elsewhere at least ten times (see Ps 132:15, for example). In the second line the Niphal form יִמָּצוּ (yimmatsu, derived from מָצָה, matsah, “drain”) is emended to a Qal form יָמֹצּוּ (yamotsu), derived from מָצַץ (matsats, “to suck”). In Isa 66:11 the verbs שָׂבַע (sava’; proposed in Ps 73:10a) and מָצַץ (proposed in Ps 73:10b) are parallel. The point of the emended text is this: Because they are seemingly sovereign (v. 9), they become greedy and grab up everything they need and more.

[73:11]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “How does God know? Is there knowledge with the Most High?” They appear to be practical atheists, who acknowledge God’s existence and sovereignty in theory, but deny his involvement in the world (see Pss 10:4, 11; 14:1).

[73:12]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “Look, these [are] the wicked.”

[73:12]  ⁴² tn Heb “the ones who are always at ease [who] increase wealth.”