Job 22:16

"Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden,"

Key Reflection

In the context of Job 22:16, the original audience would have understood this as a challenge to Job's claim of righteousness. The speaker is suggesting that if Job truly believed in maintaining ethical and moral standards, he should adhere to the same path that righteous individuals walked, despite the hardship such a course might entail. The phrase "wicked men" likely refers to those who had abandoned traditional virtues or who were perceived as unjustly prospering through unrighteous means, thereby casting doubt on Job's assertion of his own righteousness and the integrity of God’s justice.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Which were cut down -Who were suddenly destroyed by a flood. On the word used here (קמטqâmaṭ) see the notes atJob 16:8. It occurs only in that place and this. Its primary notion is that of drawing together or contracting - as the feet of a lamb or calf are drawn together and tied preparatory to being killed; and the meaning here is, probably, “who were huddled together by the waters,” or who were driven in heaps by the deluge, so rapidly and suddenly did it come upon them. Out of time -Hebrew “And there was no time;” that is, it was done in a moment, or suddenly. No time was given them; no delay was granted. The floods rushed over them, and nothing could stay them.

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