Комментарий к Ийова 21:1

Now that his three companions have completed their respective theses on the question of the well-being of the wicked, Job comes forward and in this speech presents a general response to all they had said. In their submissions, they had fitted their arrows to the bowstring (Psalms 11:2) with him Job himself as the target, for in their eyes, he was a thoroughly wicked person. They saw the answer to the question of the prosperity of the wicked in the calamities that had befallen him, namely, that they [the wicked] have no future to look forward to (Proverbs 24:20); that just as Job’s prosperity had not endured, neither does that of any evil-doer. Answering them directly (Proverbs 24:26), Job points out that the question he had posed was a general one, concerning the whole of mankind, viz. why are there are so many prosperous evildoers amongst us? (Ch.21:4-6). But regarding this, their answers had got them nowhere (Nehemiah 4:1).

• For Eliphaz was wrong when he said that the wicked are always full of fear and feel insecure despite their prosperity. On the contrary, there are wicked people who are both self-assured and contented (ibid. 9-11).