ContradictionsReading order 32Bible context 2 min read
Do the wicked live long?
Job asks why the wicked reach old age, while several other passages say wickedness prevents a long life.
- Textual conflict
- Interpretive tension
- The passages pull in different directions, but the conflict depends on how their wording, scope, or narrative context is read.
- Importance
- Foundational
- A central claim about origins, salvation, divine justice, or religious authority.
The explicit observation that wicked people grow old conflicts with general assurances that their wickedness prevents long life.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Wicked people grow old and powerful
Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
Job 21:7
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Job 21
The wicked are promised shortened lives and destruction
But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee.
Psalms 55:23
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Psalms 55