Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
Ver. 7. Wherefore do the wicked live, become old] Vivunt, veteraseunt, they are lively and longlived, so that they outlast many better than themselves; being as sound as roaches and as vivacious as the snail, the property whereof is to live a long while even after the head is off and the heart out. Of some creatures we use to say, that they have nine lives; of some wicked men it may be thought so, they do evil a hundred times, and yet their days are prolonged, Ecclesiastes 9:12. Manasseh reigned longest of any king in Judah. Pope John XXII. (that monster and mortalist) lived longest of any pope, and died richest. God gives wealth, health, and long life to many wicked, Non aliter ac siquis crumenam ingentem aure plenam latrinae inieciat, saith one; No otherwise than as when a man casts a great purse filled with gold into an outhouse (Gasp. Ens.). Now if any shall ask, with Job, Why all this? the apostle answereth one question by another: Romans 9:22, "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endure with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" What hath anyman to say to that? And again, Who knows not that the Lord hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness, even that day of the revelation of the righteous judgment, Act 17:31 Romans 2:5. The Judge of the earth keepeth his petty sessions now, letting the law pass upon some few, reserving the rest till the great assizes, 1 Timothy 5:24 .
Yea, are mighty in power?] Or, prevail in wealth, which maketh them mighty; for money is the monarch of this present world, and carrieth all before it.