Job 21:32 | KingComments | STEP | Often the end of the enjoyment of prosperity for the wicked only comes when he dies. He does not die by Divine judgment, but simply because he has grown old. Inevitably, the moment comes when he goes “the way of all the earth” ( ) and is “carried to the grave”, that is, the cemetery, where he has his grave ( ). At his funeral the necessary splendor can still be shown. His tomb is cared for, provided with a guard of honor and guarded by guards, so that tomb robbers do not have a chance to ‘steal’ the treasures ‘given’ with him in the tomb. On his gravestone it says: ‘Rest softly’. That’s what people think. The speeches at his funeral take place under the motto, “About the dead nothing but good.” They suppose that the clods that cover him, and that have been taken out of the wadis or riverbeds especially for him, are pleasing to him ( ). The man has always worked hard and lived well. He now has his deserved ‘final resting place’. Even in his death he remains an attraction. The description “all men will follow after him”, can mean the corpse procession. It can also mean the masses who visit his grave later. In any case, he dies as all people will do after him and as happened to the countless people who preceded him. Job says all these things in response to his friends’ assumption that the wicked has no peace and quiet, neither in his life nor in his death. There are certainly ungodly people who already suffer in their lives because of their wicked life and then die a terrible death. What matters to him is to show that it cannot be said in general terms that wicked people are suffering and good people prosper. It is also sometimes the other way around that wicked people prosper, even to their death and good people suffer. What a difference with the theology of the three friends.

‏ Job 21:32

The End in Death

Often the end of the enjoyment of prosperity for the wicked only comes when he dies. He does not die by Divine judgment, but simply because he has grown old. Inevitably, the moment comes when he goes “the way of all the earth” (Jos 23:14) and is “carried to the grave”, that is, the cemetery, where he has his grave (Job 21:32). At his funeral the necessary splendor can still be shown. His tomb is cared for, provided with a guard of honor and guarded by guards, so that tomb robbers do not have a chance to ‘steal’ the treasures ‘given’ with him in the tomb.

On his gravestone it says: ‘Rest softly’. That’s what people think. The speeches at his funeral take place under the motto, “About the dead nothing but good.” They suppose that the clods that cover him, and that have been taken out of the wadis or riverbeds especially for him, are pleasing to him (Job 21:33). The man has always worked hard and lived well. He now has his deserved ‘final resting place’. Even in his death he remains an attraction. The description “all men will follow after him”, can mean the corpse procession. It can also mean the masses who visit his grave later. In any case, he dies as all people will do after him and as happened to the countless people who preceded him.

Job says all these things in response to his friends’ assumption that the wicked has no peace and quiet, neither in his life nor in his death. There are certainly ungodly people who already suffer in their lives because of their wicked life and then die a terrible death. What matters to him is to show that it cannot be said in general terms that wicked people are suffering and good people prosper. It is also sometimes the other way around that wicked people prosper, even to their death and good people suffer. What a difference with the theology of the three friends.