Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 21:7 - 21:7

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 21:7 - 21:7


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

7 Wherefore do the wicked live,

Become old, yea, become mighty in power?

8 Their posterity is established before them about them,

And their offspring before their eyes.

9 Their houses have peace without fear,

And the rod of Eloah cometh not upon them.

10 His (the evil-doer's) bull gendereth and faileth not;

His cow calveth easily, and casteth not her calf.

11 They let their little ones run about as a flock,

And their children jump about.

The question in Job 21:7 is the same as that which Jeremiah also puts forth, Job 12:1-3. It is the antithesis of Zophar's thesis, Job 20:5, and seeks the reason of the fact established by experience which had also well-nigh proved the ruin of Asaph (Ps 73: comp. Mal 3:13-15), viz., that the ungodly, far from being overtaken by the punishment of their godlessness, continued in the enjoyment of life, that they attain to old age, and also a proportionately increasing power and wealth. The verb עָתַק, which in Job 14:18; Job 18:4 (comp. the Hiph. Job 9:5; Job 32:15), we read in the signification promoveri, has here, like the Arabic ‛ataqa, ‛atuqa, the signification to become old, aetate provehi; and גָּבַר חַיִל, to become strong in property, is a synonym of הִשְׂגָּה חַיִל, to acquire constantly increasing possessions, used in a similar connection in Psa 73:12. The first feature in the picture of the prosperity of the wicked, which the pang of being bereft of his own children brings home to Job, is that they are spared the same kind of loss: their posterity is established (נָכֹון, constitutus, elsewhere standing in readiness, Job 12:5; Job 15:23; Job 18:12, here standing firm, as e.g., Psa 93:2) in their sight about them (so that they have to mourn neither their loss by death nor by separation from their home), and their offspring (צֶֽאֱצָאִים, a word common only to the undisputed as well as to the disputed prophecies of Isaiah and the book of Job) before their eyes; נכון must be carried over to Job 21:8 as predicate: they are, without any loss, before their eyes. The description passes over from the children, the corner-stones of the house (vid., Ges. Thes., s.v. בנה), to the houses themselves. It is just as questionable here as in Job 5:24; Isa 41:3, and elsewhere, whether שָׁלֹום is a subst. (= בשׁלום) or an adj.; the substantival rendering is at least equally admissible in such an elevated poetic speech, and the plur. subject בָּתֵּיהֶם, which, if the predicate were intended to be taken as an adj., leads one to expect שׁלומים, decides in its favour. On מִפַּחַד, without (far from) terrifying misfortune, as Isa 22:3, מקשׁת, without a bow, vid., on Job 19:26. That which is expressed in Job 21:9, according to external appearance, is in Job 21:9 referred to the final cause; Eloah's שֵׁבֶט, rod, with which He smites in punishment (Job 9:34; Job 37:13, comp. Isa 10:24-26, where שֹׁוט, scourge, interchanges with it), is not over them, i.e., threatens and smites them not.

Job 21:10 comes specially to the state of the cattle, after the state of the household in general has been treated of. Since שֹׁורֹו and פָּרָתֹו are interchangeable, and are construed according to their genus, the former undoubtedly is intended of the male, not also epikoi'noos of the female (lxx ἡ βοῦς, Jerome, Saadia), as Rosenm., after Bochart, believes it must be taken, because `br is never said de mare feminam ineunte, but always de femina quae concipit. In reality, however, it is with עבר otherwise than with עדה, whose Pael and Aphel certainly signify concipere (prop. transmittere sc. semen in a passive sense). On the other hand, עבר, even in Kal, signifies to be impregnated (whence עֹובַר, the embryo, and the biblical אָבוּר, like the extra-biblical עִבּוּר, the produce of the land), the Pael consequently to impregnate, whence מְעַבְּרָא (from the part. pass. מְעַבַּר) impregnated (pregnant), the Ithpa. to be impregnated, as Rabb. Pual מְעֻבֶּרֶת, impregnated (by which עֹבֶרֶת also signifies pregnant, which would be hardly possible if עבר in this sexual sense were not radically distinct from עבר, περ-ᾶν). Accordingly the Targ. translates עִבַּר by מבטין (impraegnans), and Gecatilia translates שׁורו by Arab. fḥlhm (admissarius eorum), after which nearly all Jewish expositors explain. This explanation also suits לֹא יַגְעִל, which lxx translates οὐκ οὀμοτόκησε (Jer. non abortivit), Symm. in a like sense οὐκ ἐξέτρωσε, Aq. οὐκ εξέβαλε, Saad. la julziq. The reference of שׁורו to the female animal everywhere assumed is incorrect; on the contrary, the bullock kept for breeding is the subject; but proceeding from this, that which is affirmed is certainly referred to the female animal. For גָּעַל signifies to cast out, cast away; the Hiph. therefore: to cause to cast out; Rabb. in the specified signification: so to heat what has sucked in that which is unclean, that it gives it back or lets it go (לפלוט הבלוע). Accordingly Raschi explains: “he injects not useless seed into her, which might come back and be again separated (נפלט) from her inward part, without impregnation taking place.” What therefore עִבַּר says positively, ולא יגעיל says negatively: neque efficit ut ejiciat.

(Note: The Aruch under גּעל, quotes a passage of the Tosefta: מוזרות נפשׁ היפה תאכלם גיעולי ביצים מותרים באכילה, the cast away (Würflinge) eggs (i.e., such as have fallen away from the hen from a stroke on the tail of some other cause, and which are not completely formed) are allowed as food; he may eat them who does not loathe them.)

It is then further, in Job 21:9, said of the female animal which has been impregnated that she does not allow it to glide away, i.e., the fruit, therefore that she brings forth (פִּלֵּט as מִלֵּט, הִמְלִיט), and that she does not cause or suffer any untimely birth.

At the end of the strophe, Job 21:11, the poet with delicate tact makes the sufferer, who is become childless, return to the joy of the wicked in the abundance of children. שִׁלֵּחַ signifies here, as Isa 32:20, to allow freedom for motion and exercise. On עֲוִיל, vid., on Job 16:11; Job 19:18. It has a similar root (Arab. ‛âl, alere) to the Arab. ‛ajjil (collect. ‛ijâl), servants, but not a similar meaning. The subj. to Job 21:12 are not the children, but the “wicked” themselves, the happy fathers of the flocks of children that are let loose.