They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
Zophar had said that the wicked are cut off. Job answers with what he sees instead: a household of the wicked full of children, music and ease, while the man who fears God sits in ashes.
The Picture Job Paints
The verse sits inside a longer scene of untouched comfort. One writer sets the happy children of the wicked against the man describing them, who has lost his own:
Samuel RidoutHe looks at the other side, at the case of the prosperous wicked. With ability equal to Zophar's, he reminds him that evil men often go on unchecked. They live to old age and become mighty in power. Their families grow up about them, and all stays quiet without the rod of God falling upon them. Flocks and herds increase. His children — in sad contrast to the now childless speaker — are like a group of lambs skipping about the home, and inside you hear the sound of tambourine, harp and pipe.
These are the instruments of a party. Measured by what people value in life now, this is life at its best:
William KellyIt is not just that you have one here and there. The wicked really take root in the world; they are at home there. "Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them." They come under no special chastening… It is they that enjoy the world, if you leave out God, and take man's appreciation of present life. There is no disputing that such is the fact, account for it or not, if one looks at the world as it is.
What It Disproves
Job is not just venting. He is asking questions that his friends' rule about the wicked cannot handle:
Leslie M. GrantZophar had spoken of the wicked being cut off, but Job has questions now that Zophar does not even try to answer. Sometimes wicked men are cut off, but some wicked men live and become old and become mighty in power above others (v.7). Why? Their children often get along well with hardly a setback (v.8). They seem to have nothing to fear and the discipline of God's government seems not to apply to them (v.9). "Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and does not miscarry" (v.10). Often the righteous find just the opposite.
The Music and the Words That Follow It
Two verses later the same people tell God to leave them alone:
William Kelly"They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance" — everything prosperous and smiling — "They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe." It is serious to find all that with such bad company. It is a solemn warning to those who are given up… "Therefore they say to God, 'Depart from us!'" Job's words are far more solemn and more true than the violent Zophar had painted… They do not say that to man, but that is what their conduct says to God.
The Side Job Still Admits
Job does not say the wicked escape for good. The reckoning comes, but he places it later:
Samuel RidoutWhile it is true, as the psalmist tells us, that the ungodly are "like chaff that the wind drives away" (Ps. 1:4), Job reminds his hearers that this seldom takes place in the present life; it is reserved for the "judgment."
Judging Before the Time
The mistake of the three friends was one of timing. They read the present as the final verdict:
William KellyThe friends put the time too early. They fixed their eyes (blinded, alas!) on the present, as the Christian world does, instead of waiting, like Job, for the resurrection and the kingdom… Look at these two men, each with a full cup, one of happiness, the other of misery. Both lie dead together. Appearances prove nothing but the haste and folly of those who judge before the time.
The same puzzle troubled a later writer, and it broke only when he changed his vantage point:
Leslie M. GrantAsaph observed this also, as he records in Psalm 73:3-9, and added in verses 16-17, "It was too painful for me — until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end." He learned that God's accounts are not settled in this life: there is a future to be considered.
Summary
- The music is real. Job is not exaggerating; the wicked do enjoy this world, if you leave God out and measure life by what man values in it.
- The music disproves the theory. Zophar said the wicked are cut off. Job points to a household of the godless dancing to tambourine and harp, with no rod of God upon them.
- The music has words. The same people who rejoice at the pipe tell God to depart — not in speech, but in how they live.
- The music is not the verdict. Psalm 1 says the wicked are like chaff that the wind drives away. Job says that seldom happens in this life; God holds it over for the judgment.
- The music ends elsewhere. Both the happy man and the miserable one lie dead at last, so present appearances settle nothing; Job waits for the resurrection and the kingdom.