22 Shall any teach God knowledge, Seeing he judgeth those that are high?
For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
`It is' he that sitteth above the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in; that bringeth princes to nothing; that maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is `the book' of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, `even' the lake of fire. And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut `it', and sealed `it' over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished: after this he must be loosed for a little time.
And angels that kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
Behold, he putteth no trust in his servants; And his angels he chargeth with folly:
Who is like unto Jehovah our God, That hath his seat on high, That humbleth himself to behold `The things that are' in heaven and in the earth?
God standeth in the congregation of God; He judgeth among the gods.
Behold, God doeth loftily in his power: Who is a teacher like unto him?
Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, And maketh us wiser than the birds of the heavens?
Shall even one that hateth justice govern? And wilt thou condemn him that is righteous `and' mighty?- `Him' that saith to a king, `Thou art' vile, `Or' to nobles, `Ye are' wicked; That respecteth not the persons of princes, Nor regardeth the rich more than the poor; For they all are the work of his hands.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 21
Commentary on Job 21 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 21
This is Job's reply to Zophar's discourse, in which he complains less of his own miseries than he had done in his former discourses (finding that his friends were not moved by his complaints to pity him in the least), and comes closer to the general question that was in dispute between him and them, Whether outward prosperity, and the continuance of it, were a mark of the true church and the true members of it, so that the ruin of a man's prosperity is sufficient to prove him a hypocrite, though no other evidence appear against him: this they asserted, but Job denied.
Job 21:1-6
Job here recommends himself, both his case and his discourse, both what he suffered and what he said, to the compassionate consideration of his friends.
Job 21:7-16
All Job's three friends, in their last discourses, had been very copious in describing the miserable condition of a wicked man in this world. "It is true,' says Job, "remarkable judgments are sometimes brought upon notorious sinners, but not always; for we have many instances of the great and long prosperity of those that are openly and avowedly wicked; though they are hardened in their wickedness by their prosperity, yet they are still suffered to prosper.'
Job 21:17-26
Job had largely described the prosperity of wicked people; now, in these verses,
Job 21:27-34
In these verses,