It is difficult to know exactly how Job 24:18–25 should be understood. A likely interpretation is that Job is qualifying earlier statements here. He admits that the wicked are sometimes punished. But this seems to him to be the exception, not the rule. Also, the fate of the wicked does not seem to differ widely from that of the righteous. The lives of both the righteous and the wicked are brief, like swift
water.
18 “You say, ‘Swift are they on the face of the waters; their portion is cursed in the land; no treader turns toward their vineyards.