Job Chapter 21
Verses 1-34: Job strikes at the heart of his friends’ assumption that the wicked are judged and the righteous are blessed. Job claims that this simply is not true, if one looks at life objectively: the wicked’s children are established (verse 8), his house is safe (verse 9), his cattle reproduce (verse 10), and so on. He even receives an honorable burial (verses 32-33).
Jobs reply to Zophar’s last speech, ending the second cycle of speeches, refuted the simplistic set of laws by which the mockers lived. He showed that the wicked prosper, and since it is clear that they do (they had argued that the wicked only suffer), then by inference, perhaps the righteous suffer. This presented serious problems for their supposed open and shut case against Job.
This is Jobs reply to Zophar’s second speech: the dogma of retributive judgment fails when one observes truly “wicked” people seeming to prosper. The outcomes of personal fortunes in this life are not the standards of eternity.
Job called for his friends to be quiet and to listen to some amazing and terrifying truth (verses 1-6), namely that the wicked do prosper (verses 7-13), though they deny God (verses 14-15), and they prosper not by their doing, but God’s (verse 16).
Job 21:1 “But Job answered and said,”
Having (in Job 19), declared his belief in a retribution to come, Job now proceeds to address more directly Zophar’s last contention, and to show that even in this life there is not the retribution which he maintained there was.
Verses 2-5: Job desired to “speak” without being interrupted or subjected to incredulous groans from his friends.
Job 21:2 “Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations.”
If you have no other comfort to administer, at least afford me this. Be so kind, so just, as to give me a patient hearing.
“And let this be your consolations “: I shall accept of it instead of those consolations which you owed to me in this my distressed condition, and which I expected from you. And it will be a consolation to yourselves in the reflection, to have dealt tenderly with your afflicted friend.
Job answered the cutting remarks that his friends had made to him. He was telling them that they had been no consolation at all to him. Perhaps he would have some consolation in answering their accusations. He wanted them to diligently listen to what he had to say.
Job 21:3 “Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.”
Without such interruption as you have given me (Job 20:2). And if I do not defend my cause with solid and convincing arguments, go on in your scoffs if you please.
“And after that I have spoken, mock on”: Job does not hope to convince, or silence, or shame the other interlocutors. When he has said his say, all that he expects is mockery and derision.
Job told them, “if you will listen to me carefully first, then you can mock me if you must”. Job did not have much faith that the friends would stop their unjustified attack upon him.
Job 21:4 “As for me, [is] my complaint to man? and if [it were so], why should not my spirit be troubled?”
No: if it were, I see it would be too little purpose to complain. I do not make my complaint to, or expect relief from you, or from any men; but from God only. I am pouring forth my complaints to him; to him I appeal. Let him be judge between you and me. Before him we stand upon equal terms, and, therefore, I have the privilege of being heard as well as you.
“And if it were so”: If my complaint were to man.
“Why should not my spirit be troubled?” Would I not have cause to be troubled? For they would not regard, nor even rightly understand me. But my complaint is to God, who will suffer me to speak, though you will not.
This was Job being thankful that these so-called friends of his were not his judge. He had not complained to them, because that would not have helped. He would have been troubled in his spirit, if these friends were his judge. He knew that God was fair, and that He knew his heart. Job was satisfied that God would be his Judge.
Job 21:5 “Mark me, and be astonished, and lay [your] hand upon [your] mouth.”
Consider what I am about to say, concerning the wonderful prosperity of the worst of men, and the pressures of some good men. And it will fill you with astonishment at the mysterious conduct of Divine Providence herein.
“And lay your hand upon your mouth”: Be silent: quietly wait the issue; and judge nothing before the time.
It is as if Job was telling them to mark his words. They would be astonished, if they knew the truth. He knew if they only knew the truth, they would cover their mouths with their hands in shame.
Job 21:6 “Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.”
I.e. “when I think upon the subject.”
“I am afraid, and trembling taketh held on my flesh”: A shudder runs through his whole frame. His words will, he knows, seem to verge upon impiety.
It was almost a frightening thing to say what he was about to say, but these were things he had noticed to be the truth.
Job 21:7 “Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?”
Job asks for an explanation of the facts which his own experience has impressed upon him. He has seen that “the wicked live” quite as long as the righteous, that in many cases they attain to a ripe old age, and become among the powerful of the earth. The great “pyramid kings” of Egypt, whose cruel oppressions were remembered down to the time of Herodotus and Rameses II, the cruel oppressor of the Jews, and the Pharaoh from whom Moses fled, had a reign of sixty-seven years.
Part of the threats that had been leveled at Job by his friends, said that the wicked did not live very long. Job was directly contradicting their statement with this one. They not only live long sometimes, but seem to prosper in this life. Some of them attain great power as well. If the friends would consider truthfully what he had said, they would have known it was the truth.
Job 21:8 “Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.”
Not only are they mighty in power themselves, but they leave their power to their children after them (compare Psalm 17:14). This contradicts what Eliphaz had said (Job 15:34), what Bildad had said (Job 18:19), and what Zophar had said (Job 20:10).
“And their offspring before their eyes”: Their children’s children, as the Targum, and so the Vulgate Latin version. So that prosperity attends not only wicked men and their children, but also their grandchildren. And they live to see these grown up and settled in the world, and in thriving circumstances. All which must give them pleasure, and be matter of honor and glory to them (Prov. 17:6). Now this is diametrically opposite to Zophar’s notion of the short continuance of the prosperity of wicked men, and of the low and miserable condition of their children (Job 20:5).
The wicked had as many children as the righteous, and sometimes acquired positions of high office for them. This is true in our country today. Some of the worst criminals are the drug lords, and they establish their children in the very same trade.
Job 21:9 “Their houses [are] safe from fear, neither [is] the rod of God upon them.”
On the contrary, Zophar had just said that “a fire not blown should consume him” (Job 20:26), and Bildad (in Job 18:15), that “destruction should dwell in his tabernacle, and brimstone be scattered on his habitation.”
“Neither is the rod of God upon them”: Neither his rod of chastisement, which is upon his own people, and with which he scourges every son, though in love for their good, and which was now upon Job (Job 9:34). Nor any sore judgment, as famine, plague, sword, or any other. No, not even the common afflictions and troubles that men are exercised with.
This also is true of them. I personally believe they had better enjoy their ill-gotten gain while they can, because they will have no joy in heaven. They will probably, not make it to heaven. They are not under attack of the devil, because he already has them. He goes for the believers, such as Job.
Job 21:10 “Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.”
As the wicked man’s prosperity is described before by the increase and comfortable settlement of his children and grandchildren, and by the peace and safety of all within doors. Here it is further set forth by the increase of his cattle in the fields, one part being put for the whole, his oxen and asses, his camels and sheep, things in which the riches of men chiefly lay in those times and countries. And he was reckoned a happy man when these brought forth abundantly (see Psalm 144:13).
“Their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf”: Both male and female succeed in propagating their species, and so in increasing the wealth of their owner. This is sometimes promised as a temporal blessing (Exodus 23:26).
There seems to be no barrenness with their animals. This was just saying it rains on the just and on the unjust. The same natural things come to us all.
Job 21:11 “They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.”
In striking contrast to the fate of Job’s own children, and in contradiction to what Eliphaz had said (Job 15:29-33).
“And their children dance”: Frisk, i.e. “and skip, and leap,” like the young of cattle full of health, and in the enjoyment of plenty”.
Job 21:12 “They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.”
Not the children, but the parents of them. These took these instruments of music into their hands, and played upon them while their children danced. Thus, merrily they spent their time. Or, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra, they lift up the voice with the tabret and harp. That is, while they played on these with their hands, they sang songs with their mouths. They used both vocal and instrumental music together, to make the greater harmony, and give the greater pleasure, like those in (Amos 6:5).
“And rejoice at the sound of the organ”: A musical instrument, very pleasant and entertaining, from whence it has its name in the Hebrew tongue. But of what form it was cannot be said with certainty. That which we now call is of a later invention, and unknown in those times. Probably Job may have respect to Jubal, the inventor of this sort of music, and others of the posterity of Cain before the flood. Who practiced it, and were delighted in it; in which they were imitated and followed by wicked men after it, and in Job’s time (Gen. 4:21).
This was showing that their children were happy and had a good time, as other children did.
Verses 13-15: Zophar had claimed that longevity and prosperity in this life are linked to one’s wickedness or righteousness (20:4-8). Job countered, emphasizing that the godless and the wicked often enjoy life and go to their deaths in peace (21:32-33; Eccl. 8:10). In fact, Job could not understand why the wicked seemingly live on in their unrighteousness while, as a righteous man, he was dying. The godless are those who say to God, “Depart from us”.
Job 21:13 “They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.
They die, i.e. without suffering from any prolonged or severe illness, such as that grievous affliction from which Job himself was suffering. Probably Job does not mean to maintain all this absolutely, or as universally the case. But he wishes to force his friends to acknowledge that there are many exceptions to their universal law, that wickedness is always visited in this world with fitting punishment, and he wants them to account for those exceptions (see verse 7).
Job was comparing this terrible disease that he had to those who were evil. There were many evil people living in their land who were not suffering the trouble that Job had suffered. Job was not criticizing God in this. He was just discounting what his friends had said about his illness.
Job 21:14 “Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.”
It is this impunity which leads the wicked to renounce God altogether. They think that they get on very well without God, and consequently have no need to serve him. Job puts their thoughts into words (verses 14-15), and thus very graphically represents their tone of feeling.
“For we desire not the knowledge of thy ways”: The wicked feel no interest in God; they do not trouble themselves about him. His ways are “far above out of their sight,” and they do not care to know them.
They felt they had no need for God. They did not want to be restricted in the things they did by God’s moral laws. Job was saying they saw no need to serve God, since it seemed everything was going so well for them without Him. They actually felt they would have to give up all of their good times if they served God.
Job 21:15 “What [is] the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?”
“Who is Jehovah,” said Pharaoh to Moses, “that I should obey his voice? I know not Jehovah” (Exodus 5:2). So as the ungodly in Job’s time. They pretend to have no knowledge of God, no sense of his claims upon them, no internal consciousness that they are bound to worship and obey him. They are agnostics of a pronounced type, or at least they profess to be such.
“What profit should we have, if we pray to him?” Expediency is everything with them. Will serving God do them any good? Will it advance their worldly interests? Persuade them of that, and they will be willing to pay him, at any rate, a lip-service. But, having prospered so long and so greatly without making any religious profession, they see no reason to believe that they would prosper more if they made one.
Job said this was what the evil person would say, if you were trying to get them to follow God. They wanted to know what they would get out of God. They would say, “what’s in this for me”?
Job 21:16 “Lo, their good [is] not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me.”
In Job’s mind, there was no point in listening to the prosperous; they had nothing to say to him.
Job stopped and speculated on what the wicked had said. Their good was not in their hand. It is God that controls everything. God controlled them and in fact Job as well. His wicked friends had offered no comfort to Job at all. Job did not accept their wicked counsel.
Verses 17-22: Playing off Bildad’s sentiment (see 18:5-6; 18-19), this whole section repeats the assertions of Job’s friends regarding the judgment of sinners. To refute that perspective, Job suggested that his friends were guilty of telling God how He must deal with people (verse 22).
Job 21:17 “How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and [how oft] cometh their destruction upon them! [God] distributeth sorrows in his anger.”
This phrase notes either,
(1) The rarity and seldomness of it. I confess and sometimes happens, but not often; or
(2) But rather, the frequency of it.
I grant that this happens occasionally, though not constantly, as you affirm. And this seems best to agree both with the use of this phrase in Scripture, where it notes frequency (as Psalm 78:40; Matt. 18:21; Luke 13:34).
God distributeth: God is manifestly understood out of the following words, this being God’s work, and proceeding from God’s anger.
Job had decided that the wicked seemed to not be under the attack that he was under. He was asking the question, “How often are the wicked attacked”? Job was aware there was something unusual about this attack on him, but he had no idea it was Satan attacking him. He thought he was protected from Satan by God. He did not know the circumstances of this attack. Job knew that God distributed anger to those who disobey.
Job 21:18 “They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.”
According to the interpretation proposed of the previous verse, this may be read as a question, “How often is it that the wicked are made like stubble? You say that God deals with people exactly according to their characters, and that the wicked are certainly subjected to calamities. But how often does this, in fact, occur? Is it a uniform law? Do they not, in fact, live in prosperity, and arrive at a good old age?” It is not uncommon in the Scriptures to compare the wicked with stubble, and to affirm that they shall be driven away, as the chaff is driven by the wind (see notes on Isa. 17:13).
“The storm carrieth away”: Margin, “stealeth away.” This is a literal translation of the Hebrew. The idea is that of stealing away before one is aware, as a thief carries off spoil.
No man can stand against the wrath of God. He could blow them over, as if they were no more than stubble. The stubble and the chaff are speaking of ungodly men, and their helplessness against an angry God.
Job 21:19 “God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know [it].”
Job supposes his opponents to make this answer to his arguments. “God,” they may say, “punishes the wicked man in his children” (compare Exodus 20:5). Job does not deny that he may do so, but suggests a better course in the next sentence.
“He rewardeth him”: Rather, let him recompense it on himself. Let him make the wicked man himself suffer, and then “he shall know it”. He shall perceive and know that he is receiving the due reward of his wickedness.
His friends had said that God’s wrath was on the children of the evil man. Job was not trying to say that was not true. Job knew that God did punish the wicked, but he also knew that He blessed the righteous. God will chasten His own children from time to time, but that is to strengthen them. This attack was not even from God.
Job 21:20 “His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.”
That is, his own eyes shall see his destruction, or the calamities that shall come upon him. That is, “You maintain that, or this is the position which you defend.” Job designs to meet this, and to show that it is not always so.
“And he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty”: Wrath is often represented as a cup which the wicked are compelled to drink (see notes on Isa. 51:17).
Job was saying that a wicked man would learn more from his punishment from God, if God punished him while he could see it himself.
Job 21:21 “For what pleasure [hath] he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?”
As for what befalls his children when he is dead, he concerns not himself; he is not affected with their felicity or misery, irreligion commonly making men unnatural. And therefore, God punishes both him and his children while he lives (Job 21:19-20). Or the meaning may be, what delight can he take in the thoughts of the glory and happiness of his posterity, when he finds he is dying a violent and untimely death? Thus, this is a further proof, that this man is neither happy in himself, nor with reference to his posterity.
“When the number of his months is cut off in the midst”: I.e. when his appointed time is come, and he knows that “the number of his months” is accomplished.
Job was speaking from firsthand knowledge. There had been no pleasure in his house, since this attack from Satan began. Even Satan knew that sores on Job’s bodies would make him completely miserable.
Verses 22-24: Job concluded that in the end, no connection exists between how one lives and the prosperity or poverty a person experiences, and so trying to sort out the life based on observation is futile. Job could see not justice in the world or with God, yet he could clearly recognize “falsehood” in his friend’s “answers”. They had based their assumptions in their own intellect and pride.
Job 21:22 “Shall [any] teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high.”
How to govern the world? For so you do while you tell him that he must not afflict the godly, nor give the wicked prosperity. That he must invariably punish the wicked, and reward the righteous in this world. No: he will act as sovereign, and with great variety in his providential dispensations.
“Seeing he judgeth those that are high”: The highest persons on earth, he exactly knows them, and gives sentence concerning them, as he sees fit. Thus, as Job had introduced the foregoing particular, namely, that wicked men are sometimes severely punished in this world, by an easy transition (Job 21:16). So, by another as easy, he here introduces the remaining article of his discourse above mentioned, namely, that God deals out things promiscuously in this world, not according to men’s merit or demerit, which he pursues in the following verses.
Job was speaking to himself here. He knew that all of this he was saying to God would not change God at all. God has supreme knowledge. Nothing that mere man could say to Him would make Him any smarter.
Verses 23-26: Some of the wicked live and die in prosperity, but some don’t, canceling the absolutist nature of his counselor’s argument.
Job 21:23 “One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.”
Margin, “very perfection,” or, “in the strength of his perfection.” The meaning is, that he dies in the very prime and vigor of life, surrounded with everything that can contribute to comfort. Of the truth of this position, no one can doubt; and the wonder is, that the friends of Job had not seen or admitted it.
“Being wholly at ease and quiet”: That is, having everything to make them happy, so far as external circumstances are concerned. He is borne down by no calamities; he is overwhelmed by no sudden and heavy judgments. The phrase in this verse rendered “full strength” is literally, “in the bone of his perfection.” It means full prosperity.
Job 21:24 “His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow.”
Rather, his milk pails, as in the margin. The main wealth of the time being cattle, the man whose milk pails are always full is the prosperous man.
“His bones are moistened with marrow”: Which is opposed to the dryness of the bones (Job 30:30; Psalm 102:3). Which is caused by old age, or grievous distempers or calamities.
Job had noticed that some people died when they did not appear to be really sick. Every person dies on this earth. It is our everlasting life with Jesus that we should prepare for, not this very short time on this earth. Some die in their youth, as it says (in verse 24). God has numbered each person’s life upon this earth.
Job 21:25 “And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure.”
Another wicked man, or any other man promiscuously considered, either good or bad.
“In the bitterness of his soul”: With heart breaking pains and sorrows.
“And never eateth with pleasure”: Hath no pleasure in his life, no, not so much as at meal time, when men usually are most free and pleasant. So, he shows there is a great variety in God’s dispensations. He distributes great prosperity to one, and great afflictions to another, according to his wise but secret counsel.
This is speaking of someone who lives a very long life filled with bitterness and sorrow.
Job 21:26 “They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.”
However different the circumstances of their life, men are alike in their death. One event happens to all. All die, are laid in the dust, and become the prey of worms.
The flesh of man was not made to live forever. It is made from the dust of the earth, and it will return to dust. It is the spirit within that flesh that will live on.
Verses 27-28: Again, Job referred to the statements of his friends, Zophar in this case (see 20:7), who were trying to prove their “sin equals suffering” idea.
Job 21:27 “Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices [which] ye wrongfully imagine against me.”
I know, i.e. what you think of me. I am quite aware that you regard me as having brought my afflictions upon myself by wicked deeds, which I have succeeded in keeping secret. You have not openly stated your surmises. But it has been easy for me to “read between the lines,” and understand the true meaning of your insinuations, which are all wrongful and unjust.
Job was again speaking to his evil friends here. He knew that they had a very bad opinion of him. Their accusations were unfounded, however. Job had not done anything to cause them to have this opinion of him. They were quick to judge him without knowing for sure why this had happened to Job.
Job 21:28 “For ye say, Where [is] the house of the prince? And where [are] the dwelling places of the wicked?”
I.e. “What has become of the house of the powerful man (Job himself)? How is it fallen and gone to decay!”
“And where are the dwelling places of the wicked!” (Literally, the tent of the habitations). Again, Job is intended, although the insult is veiled by the plural form being used. Job supposes that his opponents will meet his statement that the righteous are afflicted and the wicked prosper, by pointing to his own case as one in which wickedness has been punished.
They were judging Job guilty of sin, because of the persecution that had come upon him. They thought just because he had so many problems, that undoubtedly this was punishment from God. We, like Job’s friends, had better be careful about pointing fingers at the innocent.
Verses 29-33: Job knew they would not listen to him, so he suggested they ask travelers, any of whom would tell them that wicked people prosper sometimes in this life, but there will be a day of doom for them when they die.
Job 21:29 “Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens,”
The travelers here are those who have travelled far, or come from a distance, and are full of experience.
“Do ye not know their tokens”: Or, regard. Their “tokens” are no doubt the proofs, or examples which they bring forward. The word “regard,” or have respect to, is so used (Job 34:19). In other places, it means “not to acknowledge,” to repudiate. With this sense the meaning would be, and ye will not (surely), reject their tokens.
Job was suggesting that they ask any stranger off the street, and he would tell them that, what he said was true.
Job 21:30 “That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.”
He is not punished, as you maintain, at once. He is “kept” with a view to future punishment; and though calamity will certainly overtake him at some time, yet it is not immediate. This was Job’s doctrine in opposition to theirs, and in this he was undoubtedly correct. The only wonder is, that they had not at all seen it sooner, and that it should have been necessary to make this appeal to the testimony of travelers.
“Shall be brought forth”: To wit, by the conduct of God’s providence and justice, as malefactors are brought forth from prison to judgment and execution. Though they be brought to it slowly, and by degrees, and with some kind of pomp and state, as this word signifies.
“To the day of wrath”: Hebrew, to the day of wraths, i.e. of special and extraordinary wrath. Either to some terrible and desolating judgments, which God sometimes sends upon wicked princes or people. Or to the day of the last and general judgment, which is called in Scripture the day of wrath. For the day of the general resurrection and judgment was not unknown to Job and his friends, as appears from (Job 19:25), and other passages of this book.
Job was reminding his friends that there is a day of judgement, when all men stand before God to be judged. On that day, the wicked would get their punishment that had been reserved for them.
Job 21:31 “Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him [what] he hath done?”
That is, his wicked course and actions, and whither they lead him; to his face. That is, plainly, and while he lives, as the same phrase is used (Deut. 7:10). His power and splendor are so great that scarcely any man dare reprove him for his sin, or show him his danger.
“And who shall repay him what he hath done?” No man can bring him to an account or punishment. Job is here pursuing the same way of reasoning which he did before, and showing that the wicked mighty man is so far from being always punished in this world. That he often does what he pleases without any to control him, or so much as open their lips against him. And that such a one shall at last go down to the grave in peace, and be buried with great pomp.
Job was saying that there would be no one brave enough to go to the powerful wicked man on this earth, and accuse him to his face. Job also was explaining that it was not the place of another man to judge him, or to punish him. That should be left to God.
Job 21:32 “Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.”
Rather, he moreover is borne (in pomp) to the grave. Even in death the advantage is still with the wicked man. He is borne in procession to the grave, a mausoleum or a family vault, by a long train of mourners, who weep and lament for him, and pay him funeral honors. The poor virtuous man, on the other hand, is hastily thrust under the soil.
“And shall remain in the tomb”: Or shall keep watch over his tomb. The allusion is probably to the custom, common certainly in Egypt and Phoenicia, of carving a figure of the deceased on the lid of his sarcophagus, to keep as it were, watch over the remains deposited within. The figure was sometimes accompanied by an inscription, denouncing curses on those who should dare to violate the tomb or disturb the remains.
Job was saying here, that the rich evil man sometimes has a big funeral with many mourners. The poor honest man may not have many to mourn his death. Such is the way of the world. After the death of the flesh is when the difference is made in favor of the honest man.
Job 21:33 “The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as [there are] innumerable before him.”
I.e. of the grave, which is low and deep like a valley.
“Shall be sweet unto him”: He shall sweetly rest in his grave, free from all cares, and fears, and troubles (Job 3:17-18).
“Every man shall draw after him”: Hebrew, he shall draw every man after him, to wit, into the grave. I.e. all that live after him, whether good or bad, shall follow him into the grave and shall die as he did. So he fares no worse herein than all mankind. He is figuratively said to draw them, because they come after him, as if they were drawn by his example.
Job had suffered so long, that he had begun to think of death of his body as something to look forward to. He said the rich man who had many to accompany his body to his grave would not have as great fear of death. He would be placed in a nice place, where his body would not decay as fast.
Job 21:34 “How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?”
The boastful words of the counselors were contradicted by facts.
All of these friends had not really comforted Job. They had been a discomfort to him instead. He thought he could depend on them for their sympathy and their understanding, and they had given neither. They had not even believed in his innocence, even though they had known him a long time. The very people he thought he could depend on for moral support had turned on him and accused him falsely.