22 To God doth `one' teach knowledge, And He the high doth judge?
for who did know the mind of the Lord? or who did become His counsellor?
for who did know the mind of the Lord that he shall instruct Him? and we -- we have the mind of Christ.
Who hath meted out the Spirit of Jehovah, And, `being' His counsellor, doth teach Him! With whom consulted He, That he causeth Him to understand? And teacheth Him in the path of judgment, And teacheth Him knowledge? And the way of understanding causeth Him to know?
He who is sitting on the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants `are' as grasshoppers, He who is stretching out as a thin thing the heavens, And spreadeth them as a tent to dwell in. He who is making princes become nothing, Judges of earth as emptiness hath made;
and I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and scrolls were opened, and another scroll was opened, which is that of the life, and the dead were judged out of the things written in the scrolls -- according to their works; and the sea did give up those dead in it, and the death and the hades did give up the dead in them, and they were judged, each one according to their works; and the death and the hades were cast to the lake of the fire -- this `is' the second death; and if any one was not found written in the scroll of the life, he was cast to the lake of the fire.
And I saw a messenger coming down out of the heaven, having the key of the abyss, and a great chain over his hand, and he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, who is Devil and Adversary, and did bind him a thousand years, and he cast him to the abyss, and did shut him up, and put a seal upon him, that he may not lead astray the nations any more, till the thousand years may be finished; and after these it behoveth him to be loosed a little time.
messengers also, those who did not keep their own principality, but did leave their proper dwelling, to a judgment of a great day, in bonds everlasting, under darkness He hath kept,
For if God messengers who sinned did not spare, but with chains of thick gloom, having cast `them' down to Tartarus, did deliver `them' to judgment, having been reserved,
Wo `to' him who is striving with his Former, (A potsherd with potsherds of the ground!) Doth clay say to its Framer, `What dost thou?' And thy work, `He hath no hands?'
Lo, in His servants He putteth no credence, Nor in His messengers setteth praise.'
Who `is' as Jehovah our God, He is exalting `Himself' to sit? He is humbling `Himself' to look On the heavens and on the earth.
-- A Psalm of Asaph. God hath stood in the company of God, In the midst God doth judge.
Lo, God doth sit on high by His power, Who `is' like Him -- a teacher?
Teaching us more than the beasts of the earth, Yea, than the fowl of the heavens He maketh us wiser.'
Yea, doth one hating justice govern? Or the Most Just dost thou condemn? Who hath said to a king -- `Worthless,' Unto princes -- `Wicked?' That hath not accepted the person of princes, Nor hath known the rich before the poor, For a work of His hands `are' all of them.
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,