Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
Job is answering Zophar, who had just insisted that the wicked man's joy is short and his ruin certain. Job agrees that the wicked man's ruin comes at last. His whole point is that it seldom arrives where Zophar said it would — in plain view, in this life.
Half a truth
Job does not deny that judgment falls. His friends press one half of the truth. Job holds both halves.
William KellyWhat Zophar and the others press was only half a truth. Now half a truth never sanctifies. What you leave out is perhaps of equal, or even greater, importance, and there was just the difference. With all his defect, Job really was holding on to the truth, and he looked at it with a larger heart and a more exercised conscience.
The words in another rendering
Verses 19 to 21 belong together. In this rendering the "destruction" the man sees is a blow, and the lines around it weigh whether the debt falls on the man or on his children.
William KellyGod lays up his iniquity for his children, He repays him, and he knows it. His own eyes see his blow, and he drinks of the wrath of the Almighty. For what delight has he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
A statement, or a wish?
Translations divide here. The ESV reads the line as Job's desire — "Let their own eyes see their destruction" — while others read it as a plain statement of fact. Commentators say the point stands either way: the day comes, but it comes late.
Samuel RidoutThe two following verses, 19 and 20, state the facts — another rendering puts them in the form of a desire. God lays up the iniquity of the wicked for the children, "visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children." He shall in the end see the result of his evil, though the day is long delayed.
Why the delay matters
Job is not denying judgment. He is saying that what he sees around him will not fit his friends' rule, so the reckoning must fall beyond this life.
Samuel RidoutWhile it is true, as the psalmist tells us, that the ungodly are "like the chaff which 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."
Drinking the wrath
The verse says the wicked man will drink. Scripture elsewhere shows what is in the cup, and who empties it.
Numerical Bible NotesA cup is in the LORD's hand, and the wine foams. It is full of mixture, and He pours out from it. Surely all the wicked of the earth shall drain off and drink its dregs — what remains for the last, and is the strongest part.
What the man cares about
The next line asks what he cares about his household after him. It exposes the motive under the life Job has been describing.
Leslie M. GrantIn the end the eyes of the wicked will see his own destruction, and he will drink the wrath of God. But it is a sad comment: "what does he care about his household after him?" Such is the callous selfishness that always goes with a course of wickedness.
William Kelly traces it to one desire:
William KellySelfishness is at the bottom of all these wicked men who flourish in this world. Even their children are in no way to be compared with the number of their own months. That is what they want — to live as long as possible.
The end that finally arrives
Job could not yet describe the state after death. Commentators point to the account Jesus gave of a rich man. The man in view was respectable, not a criminal.
William KellyThere is the awful end that awaits them, the awakening like the rich man: "in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes." That was a solemn thing, but it was the Lord who gave us that picture. Nobody could speak with certainty of this until the Lord came. And it does not describe what will be after the resurrection. This is what takes place right after death. And he was not a wicked man in the eyes of the Jews. He was not a drunkard or a thief or a robber. He was a man highly respected, a man marked by self-indulgence.
Summary
- Concession — Job admits the wicked man does see his own ruin and drink the cup. He denies only the timing his friends claimed: soon, and in full view.
- Delay — it seldom takes place in this life. It waits for the judgment, and the day is long delayed.
- Cup — to drink the wrath of the Almighty is to drain the cup in God's hand down to its dregs, the strongest part left for last.
- Selfishness — he cares nothing for his household after him. What he wants is more months of his own life.
- Sight — his own eyes see the blow at last. Commentators point to the rich man in torment as the picture of that moment, right after death.