job 20 and 21

Read Job 20 and 21 at Bible Gateway.

Hebrew paragraph divisions

For the series of speeches from Job 3:2-28:10, the Hebrew paragraph divisions for each man’s speech are like the divisions in the Psalms that we studied in 2014. There is an understood {s} division at the end of each numbered line, with an {n} marking where a new line begins within a numbered line. There are two {n} divisions in the speeches from Job 20:1-21:34.

Job 20:26a, Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. {n}
Job 21:17a “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their destruction come upon them, {n}

Job 21:1-34 chiastic structure, Job’s reply to Zophar

1a) Job 21:1-6, Job: Listen to me carefully, then keep mocking/ Is my complaint against man?

1b) Job 21:7-13, Why are the wicked established + prosper/ the rod of God is not upon them;

1c) Job 21:14-15, They say to God: We do not desire the knowledge of Your ways/ Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?

1d) Job 21:16, Indeed their prosperity is not in their hand/ the counsel of the wicked is far from me;

1e) Job 21:17a {n} How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their destruction come upon them;

central axis) Job 21:17b, The sorrows God distributes in His anger?

2e) Job 21:18,[How often] that they are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that a storm carries away?

2d) Job 21:19-21, They care not about his household after him/ let their own eyes see their destruction;

1a) Job 21:19a, They say, ‘God lays up one’s iniquity for his children’;
1b) Job 21:19b, Let Him recompense him, that he may know it;
central axis) Job 21:20a, Let his eyes see his destruction;
2b) Job 21:20b, And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty;
2a) Job 21:21, For what does he care about his household after him, seeing that the number of his months is determined;

2c) Job 21:22, Can anyone teach God knowledge, since He judges those on high?

2b) Job 21:23-33, They alike lie down in the dust/ the wicked are reserved for the day of doom;

2a) Job 21:34, How then can you comfort me with empty words, since falsehood remains in your answers?

In the discussion Job is having with his friends, his friends continue to repeat their same mantra: that good always comes upon the innocent, and evil always comes upon the wicked. Eliphaz even crosses over into shocking territory, and blatantly accuses Job to his face of being wicked – of maliciously crushing widows and the fatherless while he was in a position to help them. Job continues to maintain that evil sometimes comes upon the innocent, and good oftentimes comes upon the wicked. Job’s answer to this conundrum is that the wicked, while they may seem to have nothing but a life of comfort now, are reserved for the day of wrath.

Scripture bears Job out:

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret—it only causes harm.
For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.
For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more.
But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Psa 37:7-11

“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’
But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’” Luk 16:19-31