Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters; so does Sheol those who have sinned.
Job's friends insist that visible disaster always marks out the guilty. He points instead at cruel men who rob the poor, then slip away as quietly as snow water dries up — so where is God's justice?
The Complaint Behind the Picture
Just before this verse, Job lists crimes anyone could see. They do not fit his friends' rule that evil is always punished in this life.
Samuel RidoutThe poor are robbed of their very garments. They work hungry among the sheaves. At the oil press and in the vintage they are kept from sharing. The oppressed groan in the city — and God takes no notice of it! It is an awful picture of facts only too well known to them — and to us. How can Eliphaz make such facts fit his theory that evil is always punished in this life? But, oh, how can God close His eyes to these things, and afflict a faithful man instead of these wrongdoers? This is Job's great trouble, and for this he has found no solution.
Snow Water and the Grave
Snow water does not explode; it dries up and is gone. That is the picture Job uses for the death of the oppressor.
Samuel RidoutAnd how does this course of wickedness end? Does God come in and make an example of them? Not always; on the contrary they pass away like a swiftly flowing stream... As drought and heat dry up snow-waters, so Sheol causes the wicked to pass suddenly from view. They pass away, forgotten even by their mother, to be food for worms! Such is the end of the wicked oppressor. The main thought in this part of Job's reply is simple. In this life, and often right up to the end, men escape the penalties they deserve. He does not lift the curtain on the awful future. His purpose is to reply to his friends' arguments, and he answers them well.
So the verse describes a vanishing, not a verdict — which is why it settles nothing.
What Sheol Is
Everything turns on what Sheol means.
William KellySheol, or Hades as we have it, is the place that holds the spirits of those who have died. It is pictured as the heart of the earth — a figure at any rate, and it may be the reality. It is not the same thing as the lake of fire, but here we have a prison for those that have died.
The Grave Takes the Godly Too
Death removes sinners. But it takes everyone else too.
Leslie M. GrantThis is true, but just as true of the righteous as of the wicked, speaking of their eventual end on earth... Though Job is speaking of what "should be," there is no doubt that these things will be the eventual end of the ungodly. So it would have been wiser for him to wait calmly for God to act in His own time, instead of complaining that His judgment was too slow.
Commentators read Job's tone here in two ways. One hears him saying what should happen to the wicked. The other hears him describing how they slip away unpunished.
The Day That Is Still Coming
The delay is real. But it is not the end of the story.
William KellyNow Job faces this question — how is it, if the times are so bad, that the day of retribution does not come? We do not see it. It is coming; it awaits the only One that can perfectly deal with evil.
The same writer turns the matter back on us.
William KellyUnless our self is judged — unless there is continual self-judgment going on day by day — we get hard. We lose the freshness of the truth and its power in our souls. Then we may grow very self-satisfied, because we know that we believe. That is just where the friends of Job were. They were quite comfortable. There was nothing wrong with them; they were all right. But Job — he must be very bad! That was their complete misjudgment.
Summary
- Vanishing — Melted snow dries up in the heat without a sound. Sheol takes sinners in the same quiet way, with no public verdict.
- Sheol — The word means the unseen place that holds those who have died. It is not the lake of fire, so being swallowed by it is not yet the sentence.
- Levelling — What Job says is true. But it is just as true of the righteous, so the grave alone proves nothing about guilt.
- Delay — Job's mistake was impatience. It would have been wiser to wait calmly for God to act in His own time than to complain that His judgment was too slow.
- Reckoning — The day of reckoning is coming. It waits for the only One who can deal with evil perfectly. Until then our work is to judge ourselves, not others.