For what do they care for their houses after them, when the number of their months is cut off?
Zophar had insisted that the wicked man's triumph is always short. Job answers with what he has seen: men who defy God live long, grow rich, and die at ease. Verse 21 is the sharp point of his reply. If God settles the account with a man's family after he is gone, what does it cost the man himself?
The doctrine Job is dismantling
Job's three friends read life by one fixed rule. A writer states that rule, and then shows what breaks it.
J. N. DarbyThey urge the doctrine that God's government of this world is a full measure and display of His righteousness, and of the righteousness of man that would match it. That doctrine proves total ignorance of what God's righteousness is, and of His ways. It also shows no real knowledge of what God is, or of man as a sinner... Job shows that God does show His disapproval of the wicked. Yet the circumstances the wicked are often found in overthrow the arguments of his friends.
Where the reckoning lands
Verse 19 grants that God stores up a man's guilt for his children. One writer accepts that principle and points to Exodus 34:7.
Leslie M. GrantIt may rightly be said, however, that "God stores up their iniquity for their children." That is, the children may afterward suffer for their fathers' sins. Exodus 34:7 shows this, speaking of God "visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation." So this is a warning to parents: their children will suffer the consequences of their parents' wickedness. God knows how to measure out recompense in a fitting way.
The flaw Job puts his finger on
Job grants the point. Then he asks what it settles.
Samuel RidoutJob fully admits that there will be a final display of the sin of the wicked. But it is so often seen in the children instead of in themselves. And what do they care for their house after them?... Verses 19 and 20 state the facts, which another translation puts in the form of a wish: God lays up the iniquity of the wicked for the children, "visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children." He will see the result of his evil in the end, though the day is long delayed.
Commentators differ on how to render these verses. Some read them as plain statements of fact. Others read them as Job's wish that God would repay the man himself.
What the question reveals about the man
One writer reads the question as a window into the man's heart.
William Kelly"For what do they care for their houses after them, when the number of their months is cut off?" That is, selfishness is at the bottom of all these wicked men who flourish in this world. And even their children are in no way an object to be compared with the number of their own months. That is what they want — to live as long as possible.
Another writer sets that same indifference beside the end the wicked man meets:
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. Though the number of his months is cut in half, this makes no difference to him.
Why the account is not closed yet
So where does the case get settled? Job and his friends look in different directions.
William KellyThe friends looked for that day too soon. They fixed their eyes — blinded, sadly — on the present, instead of waiting, like Job, for the resurrection and the kingdom. It may fall on his children, not on the man himself, in this world. Job looks on to the judgment, when the evildoer must suffer. So let no one misjudge God's ways, or draw groundless conclusions from the way He governs now.
Summary
- The rule. The friends hold that what God does now shows what each man is worth. That rule treats this world as the whole account.
- The transfer. Verse 19 allows that God can store up a man's guilt for his children. It is a real warning to parents: consequences pass down.
- The gap. Job's question exposes the flaw. If the blow lands on the family, the guilty man never feels it. And he says he does not care.
- The root. Behind the question is selfishness — his own months matter more to him than his children do.
- The day. The account is not closed at the grave. Job waits for the judgment, for resurrection and the kingdom. His friends read only the present, and conclude too soon.