to end · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
days
יְמֵיהֶ֑םye.mei.Hem
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
wealth
בַטּ֣וֹבva.Tov
H2896
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense · preposition with the article + adjective, masculine singular absolute
moment
וּ֝בְרֶ֗גַעu.ve.Re.ga'
H7281
a wink (of the eyes) · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
down
חָתַתchâthath
H2865
properly
grave
שְׁא֣וֹלshe.'ol
H7585
Hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean re… · noun, common both genders singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 36:11 If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.
Psalms 73:4 For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
Matthew 24:38-39 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered…
Luke 12:19-20 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
Luke 17:28-29 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 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."
I. He here describes their prosperity in the height, and breadth, and length of it. "If this be true, as you say, pray tell me wherefore do the wicked live?" Job 21:7.
1. The matter of fact is taken for granted, for we see instances of i…
wealth--Old English Version for "prosperity."
in a moment--not by a lingering disease. Great blessings! Lengthened life with prosperity, and a sudden painless death (Psa 73:4).
John Gill on Job 21:13
They spend their days in wealth,.... Or "in good" (p); not in the performance of good works, or in the exercise of that which is spiritually good; or in seeking after spiritual good things, or eternal happiness; but in earthly good, in the enjoyment of the temporal good things of this life, and which to enjoy in a moderate and becoming manner is not criminal, but commendable; but these men, and such as they, seek no other good but worldly good; their language is, "who will show us any good?" Psalm 4:6; any outward good; the way to get it, how to come at it, and be put in the possession of it: such place all their happiness in such sort of good, and spend all their time either in getting it,…
12 They raise their voice with the playing of timbrel aud harp,
And rejoice at the sound of the pipe
13 They enjoy their days in prosperity,
And in a moment they go down to Sehol.
14 And yet they said to God: "Depart from us!
We desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.
15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? -
And what doth it profit us that we should importune Him?" -
16 Lo! they have not their prosperity by their own hand,
The thought of the wicked be far from me!
קולם is to be supplied to ישׂאוּ in Isa 42:11, and instead of בּתף with בּ of the musical accompaniment (as Psa 4:1, Psa 49:5), it is to be read כּתף after the Masora with Kimchi, Ramban, Ralbag, and Farisol,
(Note: The…
The Church Fathers
Ver. 13. They spend their days in wealth, and in a point of time go down to the lower parts. 49. Yes, O blessed man, thou hadst for long dilated on their joys, how dost thou now declare that 'in a point of time they go down to the lower parts,' saving that all length of time of the present life is then known to be but a 'point,' when it is cut short by the end? For when a person is brought to the last end, he no longer keeps aught of the past, seeing that all the periods of time have elapsed, he has nought in the future, in that there remain not to him the moments of a single hour. So the life, which could be thus narrowed, was but a 'point' of time. For as we have before said, we set down the style in a point, and lift it up; and so he as it were touched life by a point who received and lost it. By a 'point' it is possible that this also may be understood, that it often happens that they that were long borne with in wickedness, are seized by sudden death, that it should not even be granted them to bewail before death the things they have done wrong, but seeing that occasionally the life of the righteous also is cut short by a sudden end, we shall understand it better, if we take the words of their temporal life, in that whatever was capable of passing away was sudden. But the friends of blessed Job, who believed him to be unrighteous on this account that they saw him afflicted with scourges, rightly have the truth shewn them by the voice of that holy man concerning the blooming and ruin of the wicked, in that prosperity in the present life is no witness to innocency, since many are brought back to everlasting life by scourges, and very many die without a scourge to be dragged to infinite woes.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Amusements And Pleasures, Worldly · Are transitory — Are transitory
Amusements And Worldly Pleasures · Are transitory — Are transitory
Blasphemy · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Death Of The Wicked, The · Frequently sudden and unexpected — Frequently sudden and unexpected
Happiness · Their wealth — Their wealth
Happiness Of The Wicked, The · Is derived from: Their wealth — Is derived from: Their wealth
Hell · “Sheol” is translated “grave” in A. V. in — “Sheol” is translated “grave” in A. V. in
Pleasure · WORLDLY — WORLDLY
Rich, The · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Riches · The wicked: Often spend their day in — The wicked: Often spend their day in
Sin · The wicked: Encouraged in, by prosperity — The wicked: Encouraged in, by prosperity
Worldliness · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
In spite of assertions by Eliphaz (5:4), Bildad (18:19), and Zophar (20:10), Job noted that the wicked enjoy children and grandchildren, which should be the reward of the righteous (Prov 17:6) but was apparently not going to be his own reward (Job 1:18-19; but see 42:13-16).
Rashi on Job 21:13
and in a moment they descend to the grave When his dying day arrived, he would die in a moment, easily, without suffering.
they descend Heb. יחתו, they descend, which is in Targum נחיתוּ.
