Albert Barnes Commentary Job 21:30

"That the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity? That they are led forth to the day of wrath?" — Job 21:30 (ASV)

That the wicked is reserved for the day of destruction? - He is not punished, as you maintain, at once. He is “kept” for future punishment; and though calamity will certainly overtake him at some time, it is not immediate.

This was Job’s doctrine in opposition to theirs, and in this he was undoubtedly correct. The only wonder is that they had utterly failed to see it sooner, and that it should have been necessary to make this appeal to the testimony of travelers.

Rosenmuller, Noyes, and Schultens understand it as meaning that the wicked are “spared” in the day of destruction—that is, in the day when destruction comes upon other people. This accords well with the argument Job is maintaining.

Yet the word (חשׂך châśak), especially when followed by ל (l), rather means to hold back, reserve, or retain “for” something future. This is the sentiment Job was maintaining: that the wicked were not cut off at once or suddenly overwhelmed with punishment.

He did not deny that they would be punished at some point, or that exact justice would be done to them. The point of the controversy turned on the question of whether this would come “at once,” or whether the wicked might not live long in prosperity.

They shall be brought forth - (יובלו yûbālû). They shall be led or conducted as one is to execution. This appears as if Job held to the doctrine of “future” retribution. But when that time would be, or what his exact views were regarding future judgment, is not certainly indicated. It is clear, however, from this discussion that he supposed it would be “beyond” death. For he says that the wicked prosper in this life: they go down to the grave and sleep in the tomb; the clods of the valley are sweet to them (Job 21:32–33); yet the judgment, the just retribution, would certainly come. This passage, therefore, seems decisive in proving that he held to a state of retribution beyond the grave, where the inequalities of the present life would be corrected, and where people, though prospered here, would be treated as they deserved.

This, he says, was the current opinion. It was an opinion brought by travelers who had gone into other lands. What impropriety is there in supposing that he might refer to some travelers who had gone into the country where Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob had lived, or then lived, and that they had brought this back as the prevalent belief there? To this current faith in that foreign land, he could now appeal as deserving his friends’ attention and as addressing all that they had said. It “would” meet all that they said.

It was the exact truth. It accorded with the course of events. And sustained, as Job says it was, by the prevailing opinion in foreign lands, it was regarded by him as settling the controversy.

It is as true now as it was then. This solution, which could come only from revelation, settles all inquiries about the rectitude of the divine administration in the dispensation of rewards and punishments. It answers the question, “How is it consistent for God to bestow so many blessings on the wicked, while his own people are so much afflicted?” The answer is, they have “their” good things in this life, and in the future world all these inequalities will be rectified.

Day of wrath - Margin, as in Hebrew, “wraths.” The plural form here is probably used to denote emphasis and means the same as “fierce wrath.”