a deity or the Deity · noun, common masculine singular absolute
up
יִצְפֹּןyitz.pon-
H6845
to hide (by covering over) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
iniquity
אוֹנ֑וֹ'o.No
H205
strictly nothingness · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
children
לְבָנָ֥יוle.va.Nav
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
rewardeth
יְשַׁלֵּ֖םye.sha.Lem
H7999
to be safe (in mind · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
know
וְיֵדָֽעve.ye.Da'
H3045
to know (properly · conjunction + verb, qal, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon…
Ezekiel 18:19-20 Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all…
Isaiah 14:21 Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the…
Isaiah 53:4-6 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
Jeremiah 31:29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.
Ezekiel 18:2 What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth a…
Deuteronomy 32:34 Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
Psalms 54:5 He shall reward evil unto mine enemies: cut them off in thy truth.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 21:17-26
Job had largely described the prosperity of wicked people; now, in these verses,
I. He opposes this to what his friends had maintained concerning their certain ruin in this life. "Tell me how often do you see the candle of the wicked put out? Do you not as often see it burnt down to the socket, until it goes out of itself? Job 21:17. How often do you see their destruction come upon them, or God distributing sorrows in his anger among them? Do you not as often see their mirth and prosperity continuing to the last?" Perhaps there are as many instances of notorious sinners ending their days in pomp as ending them in misery, which observation is sufficient to invalidate their arguments against J…
Equally questionable is the friends' assertion that if the godless himself is not punished, the children are (Job 18:19; Job 20:10); and that God rewardeth him here for his iniquity, and that he shall know it to his cost. So "know" (Hos 9:7).
John Gill on Job 21:19
God layeth up his iniquity for his children,.... This is a prevention of an objection which Job foresaw his friends would make, and therefore takes it up and answers to it; you will say, that, be it so, that the wicked are for the most part prosperous, and their prosperity continues; God does not punish them now for their sins in their own persons, yet he will punish them in their children, for whom he reserves the punishment of their iniquity: this way go many of the Jewish commentators (y), in which they are followed by many Christian interpreters (z); and, as it seems, very rightly; now this Job grants, that so it is, God takes notice of the iniquities of men, and lays them up in his mind…
17 How rarely is the light of the wicked put out,
And their calamity breaketh in upon them,
That He distributeth snares in his wrath,
18 That they become as straw before the wind,
And as chaff which the storm sweepeth away!?
19 "Eloah layeth up his iniquity for his children!"
May He recompense it to him that he may feel it.
20 May his own eyes see his ruin,
And let him drink of the glowing wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what careth he for his house after him,
When the number of his months is cut off?
The interrogative כּמּה has here the same signification as in Psa 78:40 : how often (comp. Job 7:19, how long? Job 13:23, how many?), but in the sense of "how seldom?!" How seldom does what the f…
The Church Fathers
"Let his sons never gather his goods. Those whom he has made them love, the goods of this world, those of the antichrist or the devil.
Since he spoke before him [Zophar] and said "from the time man was set upon the earth," things go on in this manner. Job addresses his reproaches to him, because he ignores what is clear and evident. He says to him, you asserted that things are not as I said, but quite the opposite. Therefore, no one must know the secret plans of God, who rules the entire creation. Now tell me, why are those who are not impious punished? One is in need, the other in wealth, but their wickedness is the same.
Ver. 19. God shall lay up for his children the grief of their father. And when He repayeth, then he shall know it. 57. We know that it is written; Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation. [Ex. 34, 7] And again it is written, What mean ye that ye make this a proverb among you concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord, ye shall not have this for a proverb any more in Israel. Behold all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. [Ezek. 18, 2-4] Thus in these two sentences whereas there is found a dissimilar meaning, the mind of the hearer is instructed, that it should search out with minute care the way of discernment. Since original sin we derive from our parents, and, except by the grace of Baptism we be loosed from it, we bear with us the sins of our very parents, seeing that surely we are still one with them. And so 'He visiteth the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,' when on account of the guilt of the parent, the soul of the offspring is polluted by original sin. And again He does not 'visit the sins of the fathers upon the children,' in that when we are freed from original guilt by Baptism, we no longer own the sins of our fathers, but those which we have ourselves been guilty of. Which however may be understood in another way as well, in that whosoever imitates the wicked ways of a bad father, is bound in his sins also. But whosoever does not follow the wickedness of his parent, is never burthened by his offence. And hence it comes to pass that the bad son of a bad father not only pays for his own sins, which he has added; but the sins of his father as well; seeing that to the evil practices of his father, which he is not ignorant that the Lord is angry with, he is not afraid to add yet further his own wickedness too. And it is meet that he who being liable to a strict Judge does not fear to follow the ways of a wicked parent, should be compelled in this present life to pay for even his parent's misdeeds. And hence it is there said, The soul of the father is Mine, and the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die, because in the flesh by the sin of the father the sons…
Dictionary and topics
Heredity · 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).
you say: Job was quoting and rebutting his friends’ arguments. • God will punish their children: These were the words of Eliphaz (5:4) and Zophar (20:10), but Job thought God should punish the ones who sin (see Ezek 18:19-20).
Rashi on Job 21:19
Should God lay away his violence for his sons This is a question. Is this just, that this one should sin all his life and die in peace, and his violence and his wickedness the Holy One, blessed be He, should lay away for his sons, to punish them?
Let Him requite him so that he should know it is a praise to the Holy One, blessed be He, that He Himself requite the wicked man his recompense so that he understand that he dealt wickedly.
