Job 21:7

“Why do the wicked go on living, ¹  grow old, ²  even increase in power?

Job 12:6; Ps 17:10; Ps 37:35; Ps 73:3-12; Jer 12:1-3; Da 4:17; Hab 1:15,16; Re 13:2-7; Re 17:2-4

¹ sn A. B. Davidson (Job, 154) clarifies that Job’s question is of a universal scope. In the government of God, why do the wicked exist at all? The verb could be translated “continue to live.”

² tn The verb עָתַק (’ataq) means “to move; to proceed; to advance.” Here it is “to advance in years” or “to grow old.” This clause could serve as an independent clause, a separate sentence; but it more likely continues the question of the first colon and is parallel to the verb “live.”