Job 21:27-34

Job 21:27-34

[27] Behold, I know  your thoughts,  and the devices  which ye wrongfully imagine  [28] For ye say,  Where is the house  of the prince?  and where are the dwelling  places  of the wicked?  [29] Have ye not asked  them that go  by the way?  and do ye not know  their tokens,  [30] That the wicked  is reserved  to the day  of destruction?  they shall be brought forth  to the day  of wrath.  [31] Who shall declare  his way  to his face?  and who shall repay  him what he hath done?  [32] Yet shall he be brought  to the grave,  and shall remain  in the tomb.  [33] The clods  of the valley  shall be sweet  unto him, and every man  shall draw  after  him, as there are innumerable  before  him. [34] How then comfort  ye me in vain,  seeing in your answers  there remaineth  falsehood? 

What does Job 21:27-34 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

By urging his friends to ask travelers ( Job 21:29), Job was accusing them of holding a provincial viewpoint, one formed out of limited exposure to life.
"If Job"s friends inquired of well-traveled people, they would learn that in every part of the world, wicked people seem to escape the calamities that fall on the righteous." [1]
Though some writers have taken Job 21:31 as a quotation of the view of Job"s friends, it is probably Job"s own view. "The day" is probably a reference to the final time God will judge the wicked.
This speech explains Job"s position, which certainly squares with reality better than the one his adversaries advocated. Frequently the wicked do prosper throughout their lives. God does not always cut off evil people prematurely. For example, even though Manasseh was Judah"s worst king, he reigned the longest. Even through Mussolini and Hitler died violent deaths, Lenin and Stalin died in their own beds as old men. Furthermore, "All that desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" ( 2 Timothy 3:12). Job accused his friends of being wrong.
At the end of this second cycle, the advantage in the debate was obviously with Job. Any objective observer of what was going on at that city dump would have had to admit that Job"s arguments made more sense than those of his three friends.
"If you want to be an encouragement to hurting people, try to see things through their eyes. Be humble enough to admit that there might be other points of view." [2]