You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’ Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.
English Standard Version (ESV)
Job’s friends claimed God punishes the wicked, sometimes even in their children. But Job retorts that God should just directly punish the wicked person himself, so that the wicked person would clearly know it's God’s justice they're experiencing. It’s a plea for visible, personal accountability, not delayed or inherited retribution.
You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’ Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.
English Standard Version (ESV)
Job is directly responding to his friends' insistence that all suffering is direct punishment for sin. He challenges this, pointing out the prosperity of many wicked people, and here he anticipates their counter-argument: that God might be storing up punishment for the wicked person's children. Job retorts that, according to their own logic, God should instead repay the wicked person directly and immediately, so that the person themselves experiences the consequences of their actions.
Job’s friends insist that sin always gets punished, either in this life or the next. But Job hears a different accusation forming in their words: that God's justice is deferred, stored away for a later date, and specifically for the children of the wicked.
Job anticipates his friends' core argument: that God’s justice means the wicked will be punished, perhaps not immediately, but certainly for their children.
Job’s friends are focused on justice is served – whether it hits the sinner directly or cascades down to their children. But Job has a burning question: will the wicked truly God’s justice if it’s not experienced personally?
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The crux of Job's argument here is a challenge to the friends’ neat theological box. They believe God’s justice must land somewhere, and if not on the individual, then on their family.
Understand the original words
ʿāwōn · Hebrew Noun
Perversion, moral twist, or guilt. It encompasses both the act of wrongdoing and the inherent corruption that results from violating God’s law.
This passage directly states the principle of 'visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,' which is the concept Job is grappling with and refuting as the *sole* explanation for suffering.
Romans 2:5Paul echoes the idea of God 'storing up wrath' for judgment, paralleling the imagery of divine reserves and the certainty of divine retribution, even if Job's context questions *when* that retribution is typically seen.
Matthew 23:35-36Jesus speaks of the accumulated guilt and punishment of generations falling on the current generation, showing a broader biblical theme of generational consequence that Job's friends might have simplified.
Jeremiah 31:29-30This passage explicitly addresses and corrects the proverb that 'the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,' affirming individual responsibility for sin, which is central to Job's argument against his friends' simplistic theology.
bensonJob 21:19: "God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know it."
Job 21:19-20 . God layeth up — Namely, in his treasures; his iniquity — Or rather, the punishment of his iniquity; that is, He will punish him both in his person and in his posterity. His eyes shall see his destruction — That is, he shall be destroyed, as to see death, is to die, Psalm 89:48 ; Hebrews 11:5 ; and to see affliction, or any kind of evil, is to feel it, Psalm 90:15 ; and to see good, i…
ellicottJob 21:19: "God layeth up his iniquity for his children: he rewardeth him, and he shall know it."
(19) God layeth up his iniquity (i.e., the punishment of it) for his children, may be the hypothetical reply of the antagonists in the mouth of Job, and the second clause his own retort: “Let him repay it to himself that he may know it.”
Job’s friends claimed God punishes the wicked, sometimes even in their children. But Job retorts that God should just directly punish the wicked person himself, so that the wicked person would clearly know it's God’s justice they're experiencing. It’s a plea for visible, personal accountability, not delayed or inherited retribution.
Job is directly responding to his friends' insistence that all suffering is direct punishment for sin. He challenges this, pointing out the prosperity of many wicked people, and here he anticipates their counter-argument: that God might be storing up punishment for the wicked person's children. Job retorts that, according to their own logic, God should instead repay the wicked person directly and immediately, so that the person themselves experiences the consequences of their actions.
Job is directly responding to his friends' insistence that all suffering is direct punishment for sin. He challenges this, pointing out the prosperity of many wicked people, and here he anticipates their counter-argument: that God might be storing up punishment for the wicked person's children. Job retorts that, according to their own logic, God should instead repay the wicked person directly and immediately, so that the person themselves experiences the consequences of their actions.
"You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’ Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it." — Job’s friends claimed God punishes the wicked, sometimes even in their children. But Job retorts that God should just directly punish the wicked person himself, so that the wicked person would cl…
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Last reviewed October 2026