Job 21:33, commentary and pictures

The verse comes as part of Job's answer to Zophar's second speech concerning the portion of the wicked. It teaches that the wicked prosper in this present life and that their punishment falls afterward in the future. At death both the good and the wicked go down to sheol without distinction, whatever wealth they enjoyed in life, for sheol is the state of the dead and is set forth as down rather than upward.

The clods of the valley are the grave itself as a covering and resting place over the dead. There the dead lie in the dust of the earth, mingled with its clods, with the earth's clods at rest over them. The wicked and the dead remain in that grave until they are brought forth for the day of judgment and the resurrection. Without a resurrection they remain there still.

That every man shall draw after him, as innumerable before him, describes the multitude who have already gone before into the grave and the many who will follow them into death. Applied to burial, the covering clods mark one laid to sleep in Jesus. That sleep carries the hope that the dead in Christ will awake in Christ's likeness when they hear the voice of the Son of man and rise.