(11) Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst. (12) Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them. (13) В¶ They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof. (14) The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief. (15) The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face. (16) In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light. (17) For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death. (18) В¶ He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards. (19) Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned. (20) The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree. (21) He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow. (22) He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life. (23) Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes are upon their ways. (24) They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.
Job follows up the same kind of reasoning, through all these verses: for though the terms made use of, and the similitudes by which the doctrine is illustrated, vary, yet the sum and substance is the same. The thief of the day, or the murderer of the night, are both alike in this respect: sometimes their prosperity is great, as though they had committed no evil: and sometimes their destruction cometh speedily. But from those events no conclusions can be drawn with such certainty as from outward things to infer the judgment of GOD. That it will be well with the righteous, and ill with the wicked, is the unerring doctrine of a divine government: but that men, from their scanty knowledge and observation, may be able in every instance to form just conclusions, who are righteous and who are wicked, is impossible. The wise man hath a beautiful observation on this same doctrine, and draws the same conclusion as Job doth. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times; and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear GOD. Ecclesiastes 8:12-13.