Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes.
Job is answering Zophar, who had just insisted that the joy of the wicked is short. Job replies with the opposite fact — godless men prosper and watch their children prosper — and he says it as a man whose own children are dead.
The picture: rooted, not passing
Kelly weighs this verse together with the line that follows, about houses safe from fear.
William KellyJob describes the wicked in prosperity in strong terms. "Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes." It is not just one here and there. The wicked 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.
An argument built on facts, not theory
Zophar had built his case on the rare event. Job answers with the common one.
William KellyZophar limited himself to the special cases where God deals in judgment with some very wicked men… Now what made Job tremble so when he saw wickedness prosper? As he says here, "Why do the wicked live?" He says, "I can understand it so far. I can fully understand God casting down wicked men — it is only what they deserve. But it is not the fact, for the great mass of them seem to flourish in their wickedness for the time." "Their offspring are established in their presence." As a general rule, their prosperity was not passing away like a dream, as Zophar pretended; it was the other way round.
The wound behind the words
Ridout notices what the verse costs the man speaking it.
Samuel RidoutTheir 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 and harp and pipe.
Blessings received, the Giver ignored
These prospering men want nothing to do with the God who gave them everything. Kelly presses what their lives say.
William Kelly"They spend their days in prosperity"… "Therefore they say to God, Depart from us." Job's words are far more solemn and more true than the picture the violent Zophar had painted. "For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we get if we pray to Him?" It is not meant that they say that to man, but that is what their conduct says to God.
Grant traces the prosperity back to its source.
Leslie M. GrantThey may think their prosperity is in their own hands, that they have only themselves to thank for this. How false indeed! God is the Giver of every temporal thing as well as spiritual. But men do not give God the credit due to Him.
Job's concession
Job does not swing to the opposite extreme. Kelly marks where he grants the other side.
William KellyHere he acknowledges the other side. It is no less true that God does not leave Himself without witness. He presses the point that the present world is no expression of God's moral government. But he acknowledges that a divine blow falls on them in the middle of their seeming prosperity. In a moment their lamp goes out.
Where the riddle settles
The verse fixes attention on what is visible — in their presence, before their eyes. Grant turns to Asaph, who wrote Psalm 73 with the same puzzle before him.
Leslie M. GrantAsaph observed this also, as he records in Psalm 73:3-9. In verses 16-17 he adds, "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 take into account.
Hamilton Smith explains what changes once a person steps inside.
Hamilton SmithThe sanctuary speaks of the presence of God. Outside the sanctuary he looks at evil without God. Inside he views everything, and everyone, with God. What a difference this makes! Outside, he had seen everything in relation to time. Inside, he sees everything in relation to eternity… Man — always short-sighted — can take only a short view. God, with His far-reaching vision, sees the end from the beginning.
Summary
- Sight. The verse fixes on what the eye can see. Godless men watch their families flourish, at home in the world.
- Fact. Job answers Zophar's theory with the ordinary case. Most of the wicked flourish for a time.
- Sting. The man describing a full household has just buried his own children. That is what makes the question unbearable.
- Silence. Everything they enjoy comes from God. Yet their lives tell Him to depart — the gift taken, the Giver refused.
- End. Job admits the blow does sometimes fall. But the riddle only settles in the sanctuary, where time gives way to eternity and God's accounts are still open.