Job observes, that the wicked sometimes live happily, and sometimes their destruction is manifest, yet, though some lead a prosperous, and others an afflicted life, all are cut off alike by death: whence it clearly follows, that the wicked are reserved to a day of wrath.
Before Christ 1645.
Job 21:1. But Job answered and said— It has been urged, and thought strange, that Job should never resume the argument of a resurrection, which was so full of piety and conviction; but, when resuming the dispute with his friends, should stick to the argument that he first set out with. Now supposing it to be true, that Job never mentions the resurrection in his following speeches, nor any thing alluding to it, (which, whether it be true or not, we shall see in the course of our observations,) yet a very sufficient reason may be assigned for it: for, if one such appeal as this, made in the most solemn manner, would not convince them of his integrity, I suppose he had reason to think that it would be much the same if he had repeated it a second and a third time; and therefore he had no other resource left, than to follow the argument with which he had begun; i.e. to combat the false principle upon which they were so forward to condemn him: and this he does effectually throughout the present chapter, by shewing, that many wicked men live long and prosperous, and at last die in peace, and are buried with great pomp; which shews that this life is not the proper state of retribution, but that men shall be judged and recompensed hereafter. See Peters.