1“Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment? Why may those who know Him never see His days? 2Men move boundary stones; they pasture stolen flocks. 3They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge. 4They push the needy off the road and force all the poor of the land into hiding. 5Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go to work foraging for food; the wasteland is food for their children. 6They gather fodder in the fields and glean the vineyards of the wicked. 7Without clothing, they spend the night naked; they have no covering against the cold. 8Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks for want of shelter. 9The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt. 10Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry the sheaves, but still go hungry. 11They crush olives within their walls; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty. 12From the city, men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing. 13Then there are those who rebel against the light, not knowing its ways or staying on its paths. 14When daylight is gone, the murderer rises to kill the poor and needy; in the night he is like a thief. 15The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight. Thinking, ‘No eye will see me,’ he covers his face. 16In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in, never to experience the light. 17For to them, deep darkness is their morning; surely they are friends with the terrors of darkness! 18They are but foam on the surface of the water; their portion of the land is cursed, so that no one turns toward their vineyards. 19As drought and heat consume the melting snow, so Sheol steals those who have sinned. 20The womb forgets them; the worm feeds on them; they are remembered no more. So injustice is like a broken tree. 21They prey on the barren and childless, and show no kindness to the widow. 22Yet by His power, God drags away the mighty; though rising up, they have no assurance of life. 23He gives them a sense of security, but His eyes are on their ways. 24They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain. 25If this is not so, then who can prove me a liar and reduce my words to nothing?”
Matthew Henry's Commentary
Wickedness often unpunished. (1-12) The wicked shun the light. (13-17) Judgements for the wicked. (18-25) 1-12 Job discourses further about the prosperity of the wicked. That many live at ease who are ungodly and profane, he had showed, ch. xxi. Here he shows that many who live in open defiance of all the laws of justice, succeed in wicked practices; and we do not see them reckoned with in this world. He notices those that do wrong under pretence of law and authority; and robbers, those that do wrong by force. He says, "God layeth not folly to them;" that is, he does not at once send his judgments, nor make them examples, and so manifest their folly to all the world. But he that gets riches, and not by right, at his end shall be a fool, #Jer 17:11|. 13-17 See what care and pains wicked men take to compass their wicked designs; let it shame our negligence and slothfulness in doing good. See what pains those take, who make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts of it: pains to compass, and then to hide that which will end in death and hell at last. Less pains would mortify and crucify the flesh, and be life and heaven at last. Shame came in with sin, and everlasting shame is at the end of it. See the misery of sinners; they are exposed to continual frights: yet see their folly; they are afraid of coming under the eye of men, but have no dread of God's eye, which is always upon them: they are not afraid of doing things which they are afraid of being known to do. 18-25 Sometimes how gradual is the decay, how quiet the departure of a wicked person, how is he honoured, and how soon are all his cruelties and oppressions forgotten! They are taken off with other men, as the harvestman gathers the ears of corn as they come to hand. There will often appear much to resemble the wrong view of Providence Job takes in this chapter. But we are taught by the word of inspiration, that these notions are formed in ignorance, from partial views. The providence of God, in the affairs of men, is in every thing a just and wise providence. Let us apply this whenever the Lord may try us. He cannot do wrong. The unequalled sorrows of the Son of God when on earth, unless looked at in this view, perplex the mind. But when we behold him, as the sinner's Surety, bearing the curse, we can explain why he should endure that wrath which was due to sin, that Divine justice might be satisfied, and his people saved.