Albert Barnes Commentary Job 21:7

"Wherefore do the wicked live, Become old, yea, wax mighty in power?" — Job 21:7 (ASV)

Wherefore do the wicked live?—Job now comes to the main design of his argument in this chapter: to show that it is a fact that the wicked often have great prosperity, that they are not treated in this life according to their character, and that it is not true that men of eminent wickedness, as his friends maintained, would meet with proportionate sufferings in this life. He says that the fact is that they enjoy great prosperity, live to a great age, and are surrounded with the comforts of life to an eminent degree.

His meaning is, “If you are positive that the wicked are treated according to their character in this life—that great wickedness is followed by great judgments—how is it to be accounted for that they live, grow old, and are mighty in power?” Job assumes this fact and proceeds to argue as if it were indisputable.

It is remarkable that this fact was not referred to at an earlier period of the debate. It would have done much to settle the controversy.

The question, Why do the wicked live? is one of great importance at all times. It is natural to ask, but not always easy to answer, even now. Some points are clear and may be easily suggested. They are as follows—they live:

1. to show the forbearance and long suffering of God;
2. to furnish a full illustration of the character of the human heart;
3. to afford them ample space for repentance, so that there will be no basis for complaint when they are called before God and are condemned;
4. because God intends to make some of them monuments of his mercy, and more fully to display the riches of his grace in their conversion, as he did in the case of Paul, Augustine, John Bunyan, and John Newton;
5. they may be preserved to be the instruments for his executing some important purpose through them, as was the case with Pharaoh, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar; or,
6. he keeps them so that the great interests of society may be carried on, and the affairs of the commercial and political world may be advanced by their skill and talent.

For some, or all, of these purposes, it may be, the wicked are kept in the land of the living and are favored with great external prosperity, while many a Christian is oppressed, afflicted, and crushed to the dust. Of the fact, there can be no doubt; of the reasons for the fact, there will be a fuller explanation in the future world than is possible now.

Become old—The friends of Job had maintained that the wicked would be cut off. Job, on the other hand, affirms that they live on to old age. The fact is that many of the wicked are cut off for their sins in early life, but some live on to an extreme old age. Job’s argument is founded on the fact that any should live to old age, since, according to the principles of his friends, all were treated in this life according to their character.

Yea, are mighty in power—Or, rather, in wealth—חיל chayı̂l. Jerome states, Are comforted in riches—”confortatique divitiis.” So the Septuagint, ἐν πλούτῳ en ploutō. The idea is that they become very rich.