20 The womb H7358 shall forget H7911 him; the worm H7415 shall feed sweetly H4988 on him; he shall be no more remembered; H2142 and wickedness H5766 shall be broken H7665 as a tree. H6086
The memory H2143 of the just H6662 is blessed: H1293 but the name H8034 of the wicked H7563 shall rot. H7537
He cried H7123 aloud, H2429 and said H560 thus, H3652 Hew down H1414 the tree, H363 and cut off H7113 his branches, H6056 shake off H5426 his leaves, H6074 and scatter H921 his fruit: H4 let the beasts H2423 get away H5111 from H4481 under it, H8479 and the fowls H6853 from H4481 his branches: H6056
For there is H3426 hope H8615 of a tree, H6086 if it be cut down, H3772 that it will sprout again, H2498 and that the tender branch H3127 thereof will not cease. H2308 Though the root H8328 thereof wax old H2204 in the earth, H776 and the stock H1503 thereof die H4191 in the ground; H6083 Yet through the scent H7381 of water H4325 it will bud, H6524 and bring forth H6213 boughs H7105 like a plant. H5194 But man H1397 dieth, H4191 and wasteth away: H2522 yea, man H120 giveth up the ghost, H1478 and where is he?
And so H3651 I saw H7200 the wicked H7563 buried, H6912 who had come H935 and gone H1980 from the place H4725 of the holy, H6918 and they were forgotten H7911 in the city H5892 where they had so done: H6213 this is also vanity. H1892
They are dead, H4191 they shall not live; H2421 they are deceased, H7496 they shall not rise: H6965 therefore hast thou visited H6485 and destroyed H8045 them, and made all their memory H2143 to perish. H6
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 24
Commentary on Job 24 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 24
Job having by his complaints in the foregoing chapter given vent to his passion, and thereby gained some ease, breaks them off abruptly, and now applies himself to a further discussion of the doctrinal controversy between him and his friends concerning the prosperity of wicked people. That many live at ease who yet are ungodly and profane, and despise all the exercises of devotion, he had shown, ch. 21. Now here he goes further, and shows that many who are mischievous to mankind, and live in open defiance to all the laws of justice and common honesty, yet thrive and succeed in their unrighteous practices; and we do not see them reckoned with in this world. What he had said before (ch. 12:6), "The tabernacles of robbers prosper,' he here enlarges upon. He lays down his general proposition (v. 1), that the punishment of wicked people is not so visible and apparent as his friends supposed, and then proves it by an induction of particulars.
Job 24:1-12
Job's friends had been very positive in it that they should soon see the fall of wicked people, how much soever they might prosper for a while. By no means, says Job; though times are not hidden from the Almighty, yet those that know him do not presently see his day, v. 1.
For the proof of this, that wicked people prosper, Job specifies two sorts of unrighteous ones, whom all the world saw thriving in their iniquity:-
Job 24:13-17
These verses describe another sort of sinners who therefore go unpunished, because they go undiscovered. They rebel against the light, v. 13. Some understand it figuratively: they sin against the light of nature, the light of God's law, and that of their own consciences; they profess to know God, but they rebel against the knowledge they have of him, and will not be guided and governed, commanded and controlled, by it. Others understand it literally: they have the day-light and choose the night as the most advantageous season for their wickedness. Sinful works are therefore called works of darkness, because he that does evil hates the light (Jn. 3:20), knows not the ways thereof, that is, keeps out of the way of it, or, if he happen to be seen, abides not where he thinks he is known. So that he here describes the worst of sinners,-those that sin wilfully, and against the convictions of their own consciences, whereby they add rebellion to their sin,-those that sin deliberately, and with a great deal of plot and contrivance, using a thousand arts to conceal their villanies, fondly imagining that, if they can but hide them from the eye of men, they are safe, but forgetting that there is no darkness or shadow of death in which the workers of iniquity can hide themselves from God's eye, ch. 34:22. In this paragraph Job specifies three sorts of sinners that shun the light:-
Job 24:18-25
Job here, in the conclusion of his discourse,