Job 21:19
in Job 21It is said that God lays up one’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the man himself, so he will know it.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Ye say, God layeth up his iniquity for his children. Let him recompense it unto himself, that he may know it:
KJV
God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know it.
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This verse in Job 21
Commentary
10 notes on this verseVer. 19. God shall lay up for his children the grief of their father. And when He repayeth, then he shall know it. 57. We know that it is written; Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children unto the third and fourth generation. [Ex. 34, 7] And again it is written, What mean ye that ye make this a proverb among you concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?
This site's exposition
God lays up one’s punishment for his children
on Job 21:19-21
Job states the friends' fallback, "It is said that God lays up one’s punishment for his children". He answers it directly: "Let God repay the man himself, so he will know it". He presses the point from the other side, since a dead man has no stake in his sons.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Since he spoke before him [Zophar] and said "from the time man was set upon the earth," things go on in this manner. Job addresses his reproaches to him, because he ignores what is clear and evident. He says to him, you asserted that things are not as I said, but quite the opposite. Therefore, no one must know the secret plans of God, who rules the entire creation. Now tell me, why are those who are not impious punished? One is in need, the other in wealth, but their wickedness is the same.
The Medieval Church1 voice
After this he speaks about his adversity as to his sons when he says, "God will save the pain of the father for the sons," because the punishment of the father extends to the sons as imitators of the evil of the father. Nor will …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Some give this sense of it: "Their good is in their barns and their bags, hoarded up there; it is not in their hand, to do good to others with it; and then what good does it do them?" "Therefore," says Job, " the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
), and he will visit it upon their posterity when they are gone. The oppressor lays up his goods for his children, to make them gentlemen, but God lays up his iniquity for them, to make them beggars. He keeps an exact account of the fathers' sins, seals them up among his treasures ( Deut. xxxii.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation
God layeth up his iniquity for his children,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
God layeth up his iniquity for his children - Margin, that is, “the punishment of iniquity.” This is a reference evidently to the opinion which “they” had maintained. It may be rendered, “You say that God layeth up iniquity,” etc. They had affirmed that not only did God, as a great law, punish the wicked in this life, but that the consequences of their sins passed over to their posterity; or, if “they” were not punished, yet the calamity would certainly come on their descendants; see Job 18:19-20; Job 20:10, Job 20:
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Equally questionable is the friends' assertion that if the godless himself is not punished, the children are (Job 18:19; 20:10); and that God rewardeth him here for his iniquity, and that he shall know it to his cost.
God layeth up his iniquity for his children - This is according to the declaration of God, Exo 20:5: “Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.” This always supposes that the children, who are thus visited, have copied their parents’ example; or that ill-gotten property is found in their hands, which has descended to them from their wicked fathers; and of this God, in his judgments, strips them. It is, however, very natural to suppose that children brought up without the fear of God will walk in the sight of their own eyes, and according to the imaginations of their own hearts. He rewardeth him, and he shall know it - He shall so visit his transgressions upon him, that he shall at last discern that it is God who hath done it. And thus they will find that there would have been profit in serving him, and safety in praying unto him. But this they have neglected, and now it is too late.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֱל֗וֹהַּ | ʾeloah | God | H433 → | 57 times |
| יִצְפֹּן־ | yitzpon- | he stores up | H6845 → | 32 times |
| לְבָנָ֥יו | levanav | for children his | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| אוֹנ֑וֹ | ʾono | wickedness his | H205 → | 77 times |
| יְשַׁלֵּ֖ם | yeshalem | let him repay | H7999 → | 116 times |
| אֵלָ֣יו | ʾelav | to him | H413 → | 5510 times |
| וְיֵדָֽע׃ | veyeda' | so he may know | H3045 → | 945 times |
אֱל֗וֹהַּGod
ʾeloahH433 →57 times
יִצְפֹּן־he stores up
yitzpon-H6845 →32 times
לְבָנָ֥יוfor children his
levanavH1121 →4930 times
אוֹנ֑וֹwickedness his
ʾonoH205 →77 times
יְשַׁלֵּ֖םlet him repay
yeshalemH7999 →116 times
אֵלָ֣יוto him
ʾelavH413 →5510 times
וְיֵדָֽע׃so he may know
veyeda'H3045 →945 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Exodus 20:5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth…
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 5:9
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth…
- Numbers 14:18
‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon…
- Deuteronomy 4:24
For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
- Exodus 34:14
For you must not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
- Joshua 24:19
But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your rebellion or your sins.
- Deuteronomy 5:9
Through
Ezekiel 18:2“What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge’?
it leads to
- Jeremiah 31:29–30
“In those days, it will no longer be said: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the teeth of the children are set on edge.’
- Lamentations 5:7
Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment.
- Ezekiel 37:11
Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’
- Jeremiah 31:29–30
About Job
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XV; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 21:19-22A; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.