22 Is anyone able to give teaching to God? for he is the judge of those who are on high.
Who has knowledge of the mind of the Lord? or who has taken part in his purposes?
For who has knowledge of the mind of the Lord, so as to be his teacher? But we have the mind of Christ.
It is he who is seated over the arch of the earth, and the people in it are as small as locusts; by him the heavens are stretched out like an arch, and made ready like a tent for a living-place. He makes rulers come to nothing; the judges of the earth are of no value.
And I saw the dead, great and small, taking their places before the high seat; and the books were open, and another book was open, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged by the things which were in the books, even by their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and Hell gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man by his works. And death and Hell were put into the sea of fire. This is the second death, even the sea of fire. And if anyone's name was not in the book of life, he went down into the sea of fire.
And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the great deep and a great chain in his hand. And he took the dragon, the old snake, which is the Evil One and Satan, and put chains on him for a thousand years, And put him into the great deep, and it was shut and locked over him, so that he might put the nations in error no longer, till the thousand years were ended: after this he will be let loose for a little time.
And the angels who did not keep to their kingdom but went out from the place which was theirs, he has put in eternal chains and in dark night till the great day of the judging.
For if God did not have pity for the angels who did evil, but sent them down into hell, to be kept in chains of eternal night till they were judged;
Cursed is he who has an argument with his Maker, the pot which has an argument with the Potter! Will the wet earth say to him who is working with it, What are you doing, that your work has nothing by which it may be gripped?
Truly, he puts no faith in his servants, and he sees error in his angels;
Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, Looking down on the heavens, and on the earth?
<A Psalm. Of Asaph.> God is in the meeting-place of God; he is judging among the gods.
Truly God is lifted up in strength; who is a ruler like him?
Who gives us more knowledge than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the heaven?
How may a hater of right be a ruler? and will you say that the upright Ruler of all is evil? He who says to a king, You are an evil-doer; and to rulers, You are sinners; Who has no respect for rulers, and who gives no more attention to those who have wealth than to the poor, for they are all 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,