Job 34:24 Commentary and Bible Study

God at times acts violently towards the wicked and makes an example of them. They provoke him to his face and perhaps for a long time he bears with them, but he remembers their evil deeds and plans a day when he will remove them in a signal way. This happens to the mighty whom nobody thought would ever be brought down. The weak look at them and despair of ever removing their tyranny from their necks, but when their fall comes, it is sudden and final. The Hebrew says, ‘no searching’, which the KJV interprets as ‘without number’ – it is impossible to search out the number. Most other versions understand this to mean without searching at all, that is, without inquiry. What could that mean? If this view of the verse is right, it is as if God had acted like a man who loses patience and decides not to bear with an impossible person any longer; they are removed without further inquiry. God of course does enquire into every detail – the next verse says that he knows their works and so does not act without investigation. But from a human perspective, the sudden nature of their downfall makes it look as if this is what had happened. Not that God investigates in the same way that we must, for he does not need to learn, and he does not increase in knowledge by study, but always knows all things. He comes to them unexpectedly when their defences are down and they are most vulnerable, and takes them away in the night. They are crushed, for their overthrow is comprehensive and there is no possibility of recovery. Others replace them – governments change; kings grow old and die; empires pass away and new ones rise to power. The new may have little respect for the old, and this underlines the futility of those who think so highly of themselves when all that they do will soon be relegated to the past and forgotten.