Job 21:16

Lo, their good [is] not in their hand,.... Though it is in their possession for the present, it is not in the power of their hands to keep, nor to carry it with them when they die; God, that gave it,

Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me. Not in their hand - but in the hand of God.

Their good is not in their hand: this seems to be an answer to the foregoing question, and a confutation of that ungodly opinion and practice, ,15. Wicked men (saith he) have no reason to neglect and reject God because of their prosperity, for their good, i.e. all their wealth and felicity, is not in their hand, i.e. it neither was obtained nor can be kept by their own might, but only by God’ s power and favour, upon whom they wholly depend for it. Or the sense is, Though they have riches, and power, and glory in their hands, yet their true and proper good is not in their hand, i.e. they are destitute of that in which their true happiness lies, to wit, in God’ s love and favour; and all the comforts which they enjoy are attended with God’ s wrath and curse, and therefore not to be envied by any man in his wits. They say to God, Depart from us, when indeed their true and only felicity consists in the enjoyment of him: compare ,7. The counsel of the wicked is far from me; therefore I am far from approving their opinion, or following their course, or enjoying their prosperity, or desiring to partake of their delicates upon such terms.

Job 21:16 Lo, their good [is] not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me.Ver. 16. Lo, their good is not in their hand] That is, they are not enriched by their own industry, prudence, piety, &c., but God hath exalted them thus, that he may bring them down again with the greater poise; so some sense the text. Others thus, Their good is not in their hand; that is, they are no masters of them, but are mastered by them; they are servants to their wealth, as the Persian kings were to their wives or concubines, Captivarum suarum captivi (Plut.). And as those stall fed beasts in the Gospel, the recusant guests, I mean, that had bought farms, oxen, &c., or rather were bought of them. - Difficile est opibus non tradere mores. Others make this the sense, and I concur with them, These wicked rich men, buried in a bog of security, condemn God, as if they had their happiness in their own hands, and were petty gods within themselves. But they are deceived. All is in God’ s hand, who can take away their wealth when he pleaseth. These men may fall sooner than they rose, since they subsist merely by God’ s manutension, and he may do with his own as he wishes. The counsel of the wicked is far from me] I am so far from envying their prosperity, that I cannot approve of their course of life, for all their wealth. I am not of their judgment, I like not of their way. O my soul, come not thou into their secret. Let their money perish with them (said that noble Italian convert, Caracciolus, to a Jesuit who tempted him with a great sum), who esteem all the gold in the world worth one day’ s society with Jesus Christ and his Holy Spirit; and cursed be that religion for ever and ever.

(16) Lo, their good (i.e., their prosperity) is not in their own hand.—And that constitutes the mystery of it, for it is God who gives it to them; or the words may be a hypothetical answer to his statement, thus, “Lo, thou repliest, their prosperity is not,” &c.; and then the words, “the counsel of the wicked is far from me,” are Job’s indignant repudiation of all knowledge of their reasoning.

Verse 16. Their good is not in their hand] With all their boasting and self-dependence, God only lends them his bounty; and though it appears to be their own, yet it is at his disposal. Some of the wicked he permits to live and die in affluence, provided it be acquired in the ordinary way of his providence, by trade, commerce, &c. Others he permits to possess it for a while only, and then strips them of their illegally procured property. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.] Some understand the words thus: "Far be it from me to advocate the cause of the wicked." I have nothing in common with them, and am not their apologist. I state a fact: they are often found in continual prosperity. I state another fact: they are often found in wretchedness and misery.

16. Finally Job adverts to the mystery: this prosperity of theirs does not depend upon themselves, it is not of their own making; it comes from another, from God. God prospers the wicked, and Job had elsewhere said that He mocked at the despair of the innocent, Job 9:23. the counsel of the wicked is far] Or, perhaps, the counsel of the wicked be far from me! Having drawn in such attractive colours the prosperity of the wicked, a prosperity given from the hand of God, Job, even in the midst of his own misery, which is also from God, cannot refrain from repudiating their principles—far be from me the counsel (see ch. Job 10:3, Job 18:7) of the wicked, cf. ch. Job 22:18. The above seems the most simple and effective way of understanding this verse. Others take it as an objection of the three friends, which Job anticipates and answers; Lo! say ye, their good is not in their own hand; the meaning being that they cannot retain it, they have no certainty of tenure of it, it will speedily desert them (Hitzig). To this Job is then supposed to reply in the following verses: How often, then, is it seen to desert them? This gives a very good sense.

Lo, their good is not in their hand - Schultens, Rosenmuller, and Noyes, suppose, I think, correctly, that this is to be understood ironically, or as referring to what “they” had maintained. “Lo!

16. Their good — This verse is parenthetical. Notwithstanding their godlessness, God gives them good.