What do you think of this BIBLE passage?

Question

Job 21

14 Yet they say to God, 'Leave us alone!
We have no desire to know your ways.

15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
What would we gain by praying to him?'

16 But their prosperity is not in their own hands,
so I stand aloof from the counsel of the wicked.

17 "Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?
How often does calamity come upon them,
the fate God allots in his anger?

18 How often are they like straw before the wind,
like chaff swept away by a gale?

19 It is said, 'God stores up a man's punishment for his sons.'

Answer 1

Here is the rest of the verse.

19 It is said, 'God stores up a man's punishment for his sons.'
Let him repay the man himself, so that he will know it!

20 Let his own eyes see his destruction;
let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

Job is saying.
People say, God saves the punishment of a man for his children, I say, let God punish the man himself.

You see. Context does matter. It was pretty unfair to leave out the other half of 19 like that.

Answer 2

Job was suffering at the hands of Satan, who told God that even his faithful servant Job would curse Him.
3 of Job's "friends" were trying to comfort Job, they were full of misrepresentation and ideas. This is also where the God giveth and God taketh away comes from which is also a misrepresentation of what was really happening.

For a better answer, provide the context, reread the passage.
This is much like taking out the phrase the "There is no God" without adding the "the fool has said" part that preceeds it.

Nice try though.

Answer 3

I think it's more useful to know the 23rd Psalm...at least it is if you should ever appear in this Ohio judge's court: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070425/ap_on_fe_st/defendant_bible_passage_1

Verse 17 of your passage is false. Good people suffer calamities, too, not just the wicked. Verse 19 is perverse. It is unjust and immoral to punish one's sons for the sins of their father.

Answer 4

So much for redemption if you're punished for your father's mistakes, I think that's a terrible bunch of verses & is from a very outdated worldview & is morally wrong.

Answer 5

Oh, the bit about god punishing people through their sons is just charming. A 4-year-old has better morals.

Answer 6

Man uses his God-given free will to choose sin.

Answer 7

Typical vindictive god - why punish the transgressor when you can punish his kids. More fun for everyone.

Answer 8

I believe it just confirms what the Bible says is true.

Answer 9

i think you christians regurgitate that stuff way too often.

call me when you come up with something original