The Inexplicable Prosperity of the Wicked

 

In chapter 21, Job responds to Zophar’s accusations by thoroughly deconstructing the foundation on which they rest. Zophar has claimed that the wicked perish both in an ultimate sense and in their relentless quest for that which does not satisfy—the gnawing greed that consumes the wicked from the inside out. Job assesses Zophar’s claims as so much “nonsense” and “falsehood” (v. 34) when held up to the mirror of real life as Job both knows and describes it. Far from suffering agonizing lives and deaths, the wicked in Job’s world prosper beyond imagination. And they do so even as they shove any relationship with God away and deny him any effective power over their lives (vv. 14–16). The key problem that stalks Job throughout this chapter is that God …