Job tells his friends to listen to him. They should console him by listening. He says wicked people can indeed prosper. They can indeed grow powerful.

JOB ASKS HIS FRIENDS TO ACTUALLY LISTEN TO HIM

VERSE 1. Then Job answered,

VERSE 2. “Listen diligently to my speech. Let this be your consolation.

Listen diligently to my speech. People who suffer really need someone to listen.

They neither want nor can benefit from a talker.

Suffering people need a listening ear, not a condemning mouth.

Let this be your consolation. If Job’s friends would simply listen to him, they would actually console him.

Listening is both a gift and a skill. It is a talent you can cultivate.

VERSE 3. Allow me, and I also will speak; After I have spoken, mock on.

After I have spoken, mock on. Job knows his “friends” will reject what he says. They will turn on him and attack him.

JOB SAYS THE WICKED DO INDEED PROSPER

VERSE 4. As for me, is my complaint to man? Why shouldn’t I be impatient?

VERSE 5. Look at me, and be astonished. Lay your hand on your mouth.

VERSE 6. When I remember, I am troubled. Horror takes hold of my flesh.

VERSE 7. “Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, and grow mighty in power?

grow mighty in power. Zophar had said wicked people have miserable lives of failure.

However, that is not necessarily true. Job rightly points out that they can have long lives and prosper.

VERSE 8. Their child is established with them in their sight, their offspring before their eyes.

VERSE 9. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.

VERSE 10. Their bulls breed without fail. Their cows calve, and don’t miscarry.

VERSE 11. They send out their little ones like a flock. Their children dance.

VERSE 12. They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the pipe.

VERSE 13. They spend their days in prosperity. In an instant they go down to Sheol.

Sheol. This was thought to be the place of the dead.

VERSE 14. They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.

VERSE 15. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What profit should we have, if we pray to him?’

VERSE 16. Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.

VERSE 17. “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out, that their calamity comes on them, that God distributes sorrows in his anger?

VERSE 18. How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?

VERSE 19. You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’ Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.

VERSE 20. Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

VERSE 21. For what does he care for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?

VERSE 22. “Shall any teach God knowledge, since he judges those who are high?

those who are high. That is, angels.

VERSE 23. One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

VERSE 24. His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.

VERSE 25. Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.

VERSE 26. They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them.

VERSE 27. “Behold, I know your thoughts, the plans with which you would wrong me.

VERSE 28. For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’

VERSE 29. Haven’t you asked wayfaring men? Don’t you know their evidences,

VERSE 30. that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, That they are led out to the day of wrath?

VERSE 31. Who shall declare his way to his face? Who shall repay him what he has done?

VERSE 32. Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men shall keep watch over the tomb.

VERSE 33. The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.

VERSE 34. So how can you comfort me with nonsense, because in your answers there remains only falsehood?”

comfort me with nonsense. Everything Job’s “friends” had to offer was nonsense.

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JOB

CHAPTERS: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42

RESOURCES: Summary, Outline, Memorize, Job’s Dark Night

Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.

Job chapter 21