Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Job 24:18 - 24:25
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Other Cases seem to Support Job's Idea
v. 18. He is swift as the waters, he is swept away irresistibly, as by a flood; their portion is cursed in the earth, whatever they have called their own; he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards, that is, he does not enter there any more, the wealthy evil-doer is kept from enjoying his ill-gotten possessions.
v. 19. Drought and heat consume the snow waters, bearing them away, lapping them up, consuming them quickly; so doth the grave those which have sinned, they are swallowed, consumed, by the realm of the dead.
v. 20. The womb, the mother who bore him, shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him, enjoying the pleasant meal which his dead body offers; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree, iniquity is like a felled tree, suddenly chopped down.
v. 21. He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not, plundering her who has no children to protect her, and doeth not good to the widow, showing himself unmerciful to all the defenseless.
v. 22. He draweth also the mighty with His power, God preserves the men of might by His strength, prolonging the life of such mighty evil-doers. He riseth up, and no man is sure of life, literally, "such a one rises up again although not sure of his life," even when he has despaired of his life.
v. 23. Though it be given him to be in safety whereon he resteth, that is, God grants him a quiet existence so that he is sustained in life, yet His eyes are upon their ways, God watches over the paths of the prosperous wicked, blesses and protects them.
v. 24. They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, they perish like the rest, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn, the spikes of the wheatstalks, the harvesting at that time being largely done by the process of heading.
v. 25. And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, convicting him of falsehood, and make my speech nothing worth? Job very emphatically expresses his conviction that he now had the advantage of his opponents, by virtue of the arguments which he last advanced. He felt that they could offer no solution to the riddle which confronted them in the fact of his affliction.