17 "Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out? How often does calamity come upon them, the fate God allots in his anger?
17 How oft is the candle
17 "How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out? That their calamity comes upon them? That God
17 "Still, how often does it happen that the wicked fail, or disaster strikes, or they get their just deserts?
17 "How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their destruction come upon them, The sorrows God distributes in His anger?
17 "Yet the light of the wicked never seems to be extinguished. Do they ever have trouble? Does God distribute sorrows to them in anger?
6 The light in his tent becomes dark; the lamp beside him goes out.
6 The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle
6 The light is dark in his tent, and his lamp above him is put out.
6 Their house goes dark - every lamp in the place goes out.
6 The light is dark in his tent, And his lamp beside him is put out.
6 The light in their tent will grow dark. The lamp hanging above them will be quenched.
(Read Job 18:5-10)
Bildad describes the miserable condition of a wicked man; in which there is much certain truth, if we consider that a sinful condition is a sad condition, and that sin will be men's ruin, if they do not repent. Though Bildad thought the application of it to Job was easy, yet it was not safe nor just. It is common for angry disputants to rank their opponents among God's enemies, and to draw wrong conclusions from important truths. The destruction of the wicked is foretold. That destruction is represented under the similitude of a beast or bird caught in a snare, or a malefactor taken into custody. Satan, as he was a murderer, so he was a robber, from the beginning. He, the tempter, lays snares for sinners wherever they go. If he makes them sinful like himself, he will make them miserable like himself. Satan hunts for the precious life. In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare for himself, and God is preparing for his destruction. See here how the sinner runs himself into the snare.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 21:17
Commentary on Job 21:17-26
(Read Job 21:17-26)
Job had described the prosperity of wicked people; in these verses he opposes this to what his friends had maintained about their certain ruin in this life. He reconciles this to the holiness and justice of God. Even while they prosper thus, they are light and worthless, of no account with God, or with wise men. In the height of their pomp and power, there is but a step between them and ruin. Job refers the difference Providence makes between one wicked man and another, into the wisdom of God. He is Judge of all the earth, and he will do right. So vast is the disproportion between time and eternity, that if hell be the lot of every sinner at last, it makes little difference if one goes singing thither, and another sighing. If one wicked man die in a palace, and another in a dungeon, the worm that dies not, and the fire that is not quenched, will be the same to them. Thus differences in this world are not worth perplexing ourselves about.