Job 21 Summary, Context, and Full Chapter

What happens in Job 21?

Job asks his friends to listen without mocking and makes clear that his complaint is not against a human judge but against the way life seems ordered. He observes that many wicked people grow old, gain wealth, raise children, and die in apparent peace, even while rejecting God. Job rejects the idea that suffering always falls immediately on the guilty. He points out that both the prosperous and the miserable end in the grave, and he ends by saying his friends have offered empty answers instead of real help.

This chapter is part of Job's reply to the speeches of Zophar in the second round of dialogue. It deepens the book's central tension: Job's experience does not fit the simple formula that the righteous prosper and the wicked suffer at once. The chapter prepares for later speeches by showing how little Job accepts the assumptions of his friends.

Themes to notice

Prosperity of the wickedJob notes that people who reject God may still enjoy long life, safety, and success.
The limits of human reasoningHe challenges the assumption that outward circumstances always reveal God's judgment.
Death levels allJob points out that both the strong and the suffering end in the same grave.

Questions for Job 21

Why is Job so troubled by the apparent prosperity of the wicked?
What does this chapter say about judging a person's life by outward success?
How does Job's view of death shape his argument to his friends?

Read the full text of Job 21 below, then open it in the reader to highlight, take notes, or ask follow-up Bible questions. No account is required to read.

Job 21

Job: God Will Punish the Wicked

1Then Job answered:

2“Listen carefully to my words;

let this be your consolation to me.

3Bear with me while I speak;

then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking.

4Is my complaint against a man?

Then why should I not be impatient?

5Look at me and be appalled;

put your hand over your mouth.

6When I remember, terror takes hold,

and my body trembles in horror.

7Why do the wicked live on,

growing old and increasing in power?

8Their descendants are established around them,

and their offspring before their eyes.

9Their homes are safe from fear;

no rod of punishment from God is upon them.

10Their bulls breed without fail;

their cows bear calves and do not miscarry.

11They send forth their little ones like a flock;

their children skip about,

12singing to the tambourine and lyre

and making merry at the sound of the flute.

13They spend their days in prosperity

and go down to Sheol in peace.

14Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone!

For we have no desire to know Your ways.

15Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him,

and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’

16Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands,

so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.

17How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?

Does disaster come upon them?

Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction?

18Are they like straw before the wind,

like chaff swept away by a storm?

19It is said that God lays up one’s punishment for his children.

Let God repay the man himself, so he will know it.

20Let his eyes see his own destruction;

let him drink for himself the wrath of the Almighty.

21For what does he care about his household after him,

when the number of his months has run out?

22Can anyone teach knowledge to God,

since He judges those on high?

23One man dies full of vigor,

completely secure and at ease.

24His body is well nourished,

and his bones are rich with marrow.

25Yet another man dies in the bitterness of his soul,

having never tasted prosperity.

26But together they lie down in the dust,

and worms cover them both.

27Behold, I know your thoughts full well,

the schemes by which you would wrong me.

28For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house,

and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’

29Have you never asked those who travel the roads?

Do you not accept their reports?

30Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity,

delivered from the day of wrath.

31Who denounces his behavior to his face?

Who repays him for what he has done?

32He is carried to the grave,

and watch is kept over his tomb.

33The clods of the valley are sweet to him;

everyone follows behind him,

and those before him are without number.

34So how can you comfort me with empty words?

For your answers remain full of falsehood.”

What happens in Job 21?

Themes to notice

Questions for Job 21

Job 21

Save notes and ask about Job 21