| Geneva Study Bible If the scourge {q} slay suddenly, he will {r} laugh at the trial of the innocent. (q) That is, the wicked. (r) This is spoken according to our apprehension, as though he would say, If God destroyed only the wicked, Job 5:3, why would he allow the innocent to be so long tormented by them? Wesley's Notes 9:23 Suddenly - If some common judgment come upon a people. Laugh - God will be well pleased, to see how the same scourge, which is the perdition of the wicked, is the trial of the innocent, and of their faith, which will be found unto praise and honour and glory. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 23. If-Rather, "While (His) scourge slays suddenly (the wicked, Job 9:22), He laughs at (disregards; not derides) the pining away of the innocent." The only difference, says Job, between the innocent and guilty is, the latter are slain by a sudden stroke, the former pine away gradually. The translation, "trial," does not express the antithesis to "slay suddenly," as "pining away" does [Umbreit]. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 9:22-24 Job touches briefly upon the main point now in dispute. His friends maintained that those who are righteous and good, always prosper in this world, and that none but the wicked are in misery and distress: he said, on the contrary, that it is a common thing for the wicked to prosper, and the righteous to be greatly afflicted. Yet there is too much passion in what Job here says, for God doth not afflict willingly. When the spirit is heated with dispute or with discontent, we have need to set a watch before our lips. | 
