24:18-25 The fate of the wicked There are difficult interpretive issues in this passage with words and phrases that are difficult to translate. 24:18 They are insignificant on the surface of the water;- There is no preposition in Hebrew that introduces vs. 18. The Hebrew text has he instead of they. Who does the pronoun refer to? It may be the wicked people described in 24:1-17. The word insignificant, qal, means light and can refer to a swift runner (II Sam. 2:18; Ecc. 9:11; Isa. 18:2; Jer. 46:6; Amos 2:14, 15). Though Hosea 10:7 does not use the same vocabulary, it has the same kind of image. Hosea 10:7 speaks of a stick on the water as a picture of Samaria and her insignificant king. Samaria and her king are light, weak, insignificant, and driven away by the flow of events. Their portion is cursed on the earth- 5:3; Gen. 8:21. The word translated insignificance, qal, also forms a wordplay with cursed, qalal. They do not turn toward the vineyards- The idea may be the wicked have no productive vineyards. The idea may be that people want nothing to do with the wicked or engage in business with them. The idea may also be that their land was cursed so there is no reason to go to the vineyard for grapes. In vs. 11 the innocent were forced to work in the wine presses and go thirsty, but now in vs. 18 the vineyards of the wicked are unproductive. The trouble of these words is that they sound more like the friends’ words against the wicked than Job’s. 1. Job spoke of the wicked being prosperous and continuing to live on (21:7) while this section speaks of them being snatched away (24:19). They are only exalted for a little while (24:24). 2. Job spoke of the happy family living around the wicked and enjoying life (21:8, 11-13). In 21:32-33 watch was kept over his grave, while here even a mother forgets him (24:20). 3. While the wicked in 21:9 are pictured as free from fear, the wicked in 24:22-23 have no assurance of life. 4. In 21:17 God does not often apportion them destruction in anger but in 24:18 their portion is cursed. Apportion and portion are the verb and noun from the same root word. 5. In 21:32-33 the wicked enjoy the sweetness, mathoq, of the grave, but in 24:20 the worm feeds sweetly, mathaq, on their dead body. It is easy to understand the conclusion, “according to Job, the innocent suffer and the guilty prosper. According to this speaker, the wicked get their comeuppance in due time.”[6] How do we explain the fact that Job sounds more like one of the friends? 1.These may be words that the friends’ spoke that are not attributed to them.[7] Bildad’s speech in this second round is very short and Zophar does not speak at all. Habel, 358, points out similarities between these words of Job and words of Zophar. The prosperity of the wicked is fleeting (20:5; 24:18). Though their popularity be fleeting, they may reach great heights (20:6; 24:22, 24). The wicked will disappear and be no more (20:7-9; 24:20, 24). The wicked will be swept away (20:28; 24:18). Are these words mistakenly attributed to Job? The main problem with this view is that no textual indications of these verses and these words belonging to anyone but Job. Also worthy of consideration is that these verses often use vocabulary from the earlier part of Job 24 that most attribute to Job without question. There is a reference to grapes and vineyards in vs. 11 and in vs. 18. The verbs carrying off (gzl) is used in vs. 2, 9, 19. The widow who is exploited in vs. 3 reappears in vs. 21. The verb devour or wrong, ra‘ah (vs. 2, 21). Is it not reasonable to suggest that these connections point to the unity of 24:1-17 with 24:18:25? 2. Job may be speaking but he may be quoting his friends.[9] This is the kind of thing they say. We have seen that in 21:19 when the quote You say is unannounced and in 21:28 when You say was a part of the text. However, in 21:19 where it is not announced, there is a refutation of the quote afterward in 21:20-21. There is no such refutation in this case. 3. The speech may be a prayer, an imprecation, that God would bring judgment upon the wicked.[10] The LXX, the Syraic, and Latin versions do this. The NKJ adopts this viewpoint. Some of those who take this position suggest that the imprecatory reading on this section stops at vs. 20 or vs.22. The objection is raised that there are no clear grammatical markers that these verbs are jussives and therefore are wishes or prayers for judgment.[11] 4. Job may be saying that in spite of all the injustices of life, he still believes the wicked will be punished. After explaining all the injustices, the wicked get away with in 24:1-17 then Job turns to show their horrible fate. Job is not against the fact that God will repay the sinner, but he is insisting that we do not see it worked out in the short term. Some writers combine various points of these ideas above to explain the text. For example, Ash argues that vs. 18-20 are a quotation of the position of the friends. Then Job points out how evil these men are in vs. 21. Then Job expresses his conclusion that the wicked will be punished but not yet in vs. 22-25.[12] This kind of tension between observation of the inequities of life and belief in God’s justice appears in other places of Scripture (Jer. 12:1-6; 20:7-18). Ecclesiastes emphasizes that life is not fair and injustices and evil abound (3:16; 4:1; 5:8). There are righteous people who experience evil things and wicked people who experience great blessings (7:15; 8:14). Yet at the same time Ecclesiastes asserts there will be a final judgment in which we will stand before God (3:17; 11:9; 12:13-14). While the writer of Ecclesiastes is overwhelmed at the injustice or unfairness of the world, He believes somehow in the end justice will be done (8:12-13). At times Job is confident of life and hope and sometimes he is hopeless. It is not without precedent that Job would say things that seem to contradict things that he had said previously.
