Job · Chapter 14

V. 1. Man-A weak creature, and withal corrupt and sinful, and of that sex by which sin and all other calamity was brought into the world.

Verse 1. Man-born of a woman] There is a delicacy in the original, not often observed:

אשה ילוד אדם Adam yelud ishah, “Adam born of a woman, few of days, and full of tremor.” Adam, who did not spring from woman, but was immediately formed by God, had many days, for he lived nine hundred and thirty years; during which time neither sin nor death had multiplied in the earth, as they were found in the days of Job. But the Adam who springs now from woman, in the way of ordinary generation, has very few years. Seventy, on an average, being the highest term, may be well said to be few in days; and all matter of fact shows that they are full of fears and apprehensions, zgr rogez, cares, anxieties, and tremors. He seems born, not indeed to live, but to die; and, by living, he forfeits the title to life.

Verse 1. Man that is born of a woman — A weak creature; and, withal, corrupt and sinful, and of that sex by which sin and all other calamities were brought into the world. Is of few days — Few at the most, in comparison with the days of the first patriarchs, much more in comparison with the days of eternity. Man is now a short-lived creature in himself, and withers so soon of his own accord, that he needs no violent hand to cut him off. And full of trouble — Liable to a variety of miseries. He is not only troubled, but full of trouble, Hebrew, zgr [bc, sebang rogez, satur trepidæ corporis et animi commotionis, full of disquietude and commotion in mind and body; exposed to labour and toil, affliction and pain, grief and fear: a day seldom passing without some cause of vexation and distress, some disorder, some calamity or other. And, therefore, Job intimates, man is a fitter object for God’s compassion than for his anger or severity.

1. Born of a woman — Like produces like. If woman be frail, feeble, and subject to suffering and infirmity, man, her offspring, shall be subjected to like frailty. “Every one,” says an Arabian poet, “who is born of woman, however long his prosperity may endure, must one day be carried forth on a bier.” Full of trouble — Or, unrest, zgr. The famous hymn which resounds in heaven when the luminous rays of the smile of Buddha penetrate through the clouds is, “All is transitory, all is misery, all is void, all is without substance.” — Max Muller. The estimate of life that the Buddhist thus sings is not more sad than that of Goethe, “They have called me a child of fortune, nor have I any wish to complain of the course of my life. Yet it has been nothing but labour and sorrow; and I may truly say, that in seventy-five years I have not had four weeks of true comfort. It was the constant rolling of a stone that was always to be lifted anew.” — Cited by Rauch.

V. 2. Flower-The flower is fading, and all its beauty soon withers and is gone. The shadow is fleeting, and its very being will soon be lost in the shadows of night. Of neither do we make any account, in neither do we put any confidence.

Verse 2. He cometh forth like a flower] This is a frequent image both in the Old and New Testament writers; I need not quote the places here, as the readers will find them all in the margin.

He fleeth also as a shadow] Himself, as he appears among men, is only the shadow of his real, substantial, and eternal being. He is here compared to a vegetable; he springs up, bears his flower is often nipped by disease, blasted by afflictions and at last cut down by death. The bloom of youth, even in the most prosperous state, is only the forerunner of hoary hairs, enfeebled muscles, impaired senses, general debility, anility, and dissolution. All these images are finely embodied, and happily expressed, in the beautiful lines of a very nervous and correct poet, too little known, but whose compositions deserve the first place among what may be called the minor poets of Britain. See at the end of the chapter. See Clarke “Job 14:22”.

Verse 2. He cometh forth like a flower — Tender and delicate, fair and beautiful, his faculties and members opening and expanding themselves by degrees; and is cut down — By the scythe of some spreading malady; or cropped by the rude hand of some ruthless distemper; or nipped and withered by the frost of some wasting weakness and decay. He fleeth also as a shadow — Which, being caused by the sun, follows its motions, and is in perpetual variation, until, at last, it quite vanishes and disappears. “The flower,” says Henry, “is fading, and all its beauty soon withers and is gone. The shadow is fleeting, and its very being will soon be lost in the shadows of night. Of neither do we make any account, in neither do we put any confidence.”

2. Like a flower — But as for the flowers and their perfumes, nature has given them birth but for a day — a mighty lesson to man. (PLINY, Hist., xxi, chap. 1.) The flower rises from the dark recesses of its mother earth; so man cometh forth from eternity, which in like manner is µlw[, hidden and dark. Ever frail and perishable, they both abide, for a little while, the sport of change and storm, and at last sink into the unknown whence they came. (Compare Ecclesiastes 6:4.) Is cut down — Withereth. Aristotle defined man to be “the spoil of time,” and St. Augustine compares his frailty to the fragility of glass. A shadow — “What shadows we are, what shadows we pursue.” — Edmund Burke. (See note Job 4:19.)

Verse 3. Dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one] The whole of this chapter is directed to God alone; in no part of it does he take any notice of his friends.

Verse 3. And dost thou open thine eyes on such a one? — Dost thou, the infinite Jehovah, the self-existent, independent, and supreme Lord of all, the Almighty, open thine eyes on such an insignificant and helpless creature? Dost thou, the immutable, the eternal God, behold and take account of such a frail, changeable, and short-lived being? Dost thou, ever-blessed and most holy, regard such an infirm, polluted, and miserable object? Dost thou take any thought or care about him? Is he not infinitely beneath thy notice? And dost thou stoop so low as even to observe his ways, yea, all his ways? And bringest me into judgment with thee — Pleadest with me by thy judgments, and thereby, in a manner, forcest me to plead with thee. Dost thou bring me, such a worthless worm as I am, into judgment with thee, who art so quick-sighted to discover the least failing, so holy to hate it, so just to condemn it, so mighty to punish it? The consideration of our inability to contend with God, of our own sinfulness and weakness, should engage us to pray, Lord, enter not into judgment with thy servant.

3. Open thine eyes — Dost Thou condescend even to look upon such a being, much less to arraign him in judgment for the deeds of a life so vain?

V. 4. Not one-No man. This is the prerogative of thy grace, which therefore I humbly implore.

Verse 4. Who can bring a clean thing] This verse is thus rendered by the Chaldee: “Who will produce a clean thing from man, who is polluted with sins, except God, who is one?” By Coverdale thus: Who can make it cleane, that commeth of an uncleane thinge? No body.

The text refers to man’s original and corrupt nature. Every man that is born into the world comes into it in a corrupt or sinful state. This is called original sin; and is derived from fallen Adam, who is the stock, to the utmost ramifications of the human family. Not one human spirit is born into the world without this corruption of nature. All are impure and unholy; and from this principle of depravity all transgression is produced; and from this corruption of nature God alone can save.

The Septuagint, in the Codex Alexandrinus, reads the verse thus: Tiv gar estai kaqaro, apo rupou; oude eiv, ean kai miav hmerav genhtai o biov autou epi thv ghv; “Who is pure from corruption? Not one, although he had lived but one day upon the earth.”

Verse 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? — I confess I am an unclean creature, and therefore liable to be abhorred by thy holiness, and condemned by thy justice, if thou wilt deal rigorously with me. But, remember, this is not my peculiar case, but the common lot of every man, who descended from sinful parents, and, being infected with original corruption, must unavoidably be unclean. Why, then, dost thou inflict such peculiar and extraordinary judgments upon me for that which is common to all men? And although my natural corruption do not excuse my actual sins, yet I hope it may procure some mitigation of my punishment, and move thy divine pity to deal less severely with me. Observe, reader, clean children can no more come from unclean parents, nor clean performances from an unclean principle, than pure streams can proceed from an impure spring, or grapes from thorns. Our habitual corruption is derived, with our nature, from our progenitors, and is therefore bred in the bone: and our blood is not only attainted by a legal conviction, but tainted with an hereditary disease. And hence flow all actual transgressions, which are the natural product of habitual corruption. This holy Job here laments, as all that are sanctified do, tracing the streams up to the fountain. The Chaldee paraphrase reads this verse, Who can make a man clean that is polluted with sin? Cannot one? that is, God: or, who but God, who is one, and will spare him? God can change the skin of the Ethiopian, and to him we ought to direct our prayer, saying, It is the prerogative of thy grace to bring a clean thing out of an unclean, and that grace I humbly implore.

Verse 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Then seeing we are all stained with original and actual sin, why should Zophar, without the least proof, almost say that Job’s afflictions were the visitations of sins which exceeded the strokes? Presumptions which inflict the deepest wounds, are sins which provoke the Lord.

4. Who can bring — Literally, who will give. In almost every case in the Old Testament this form of question is idiomatic, and is used (as in verse 13) to express a desire. Some would accordingly read, “Could but a clean thing come out of an unclean!” — Schlottmann. The idea would still be, that such a result, however much to be desired, is an impossibility. Not one pure being comes forth. Compare the not one of Psalm 14:3. The law of evil is such that a pure nature cannot spring from an impure one. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” Hence the intervention of the Holy Ghost was indispensable that one pure being might be born of a woman. Luke 1. 35.

V. 5. Determined-Limited to a certain period. With thee-In thy power and disposal. Thou hast appointed a certain end of his days, beyond which he cannot prolong his life.

Verse 5. Seeing his days are determined] The general term of human life is fixed by God himself; in vain are all attempts to prolong it beyond this term. Several attempts have been made in all nations to find an elixir that would expel all the seeds of disease, and keep men in continual health; but all these attempts have failed. Basil, Valentine, Norton, Dastin, Ripley, Sandivogius, Artephius, Geber, Van Helmont, Paracelsus, Philalethes, and several others, both in Europe and Asia, have written copiously on the subject, and have endeavoured to prove that a tincture might be produced, by which all imperfect metals may be transmuted into perfect; and an elixir by which the human body may be kept in a state of endless repair and health. And these profess to teach the method by which this tincture and this elixir may be made! Yet all these are dead; and dead, for aught we know, comparatively young! Artephius is, indeed, said to have lived ninety years, which is probable; but some of his foolish disciples, to give credit to their thriftless craft, added another cipher, and made his age nine hundred! Man may endeavour to pass the bound; and God may, here and there, produce a Thomas Parr, who died in 1635, aged one hundred and fifty-two; and a Henry Jenkins, who died in 1670, aged one hundred and sixty-nine; but these are rare instances, and do not affect the general term. Nor can death be avoided. Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return, is the law, and that will ever render nugatory all such pretended tinctures and elixirs.

But, although man cannot pass his appointed bounds, yet he may so live as never to reach them; for folly and wickedness abridge the term of human life; and therefore the psalmist says, Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out HALF their days, Psalm 55:23, for by indolence, intemperance, and disorderly passions, the life of man is shortened in cases innumerable. We are not to understand the bounds as applying to individuals, but to the race in general. Perhaps there is no case in which God has determined absolutely that man’s age shall be so long, and shall neither be more nor less. The contrary supposition involves innumerable absurdities.

Verses 5, 6. Seeing his days are determined — Limited to a certain period. The number of his months is with thee — Exactly known to thee, and in thy power and disposal. Thou hast appointed his bounds, &c. — Thou hast appointed a certain end of his days, beyond which he cannot prolong his life. Turn from him, that he may rest — Withdraw thine afflicting hand from him, that he may have some present ease and comfort. Till he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day — Give him some respite till he finish his course, and come to the period of his life, which thou hast allotted him, as a man appoints a set time to a hired servant; which period will be as welcome to him as the end of his day of labour and toil is to the hireling. This idea is implied in the word hxry, jertzeh, here rendered, he shall accomplish. Which properly means, he shall be pleased, or delighted. And the sense seems to be, As the poor mercenary rests and rejoices when he has finished the work of the day, and received his wages; so must that be an acceptable and joyful time, which puts a period to the life and sufferings of a man sinking under the burden of numerous and heavy troubles, and which introduces him into a state of perfect rest and endless felicity.

Ver. 5. His days are determined. Two things are to be noted here, that the death of man is determined because of sin, and that his days and months are numbered. But the decrees of God are in his own hands; he can add to the days of Hezekiah, and he can shorten the days of tribulation for the elect’s sake. So it would seem Job understood the sentence on man; for in ver. 13 he prays the Lord for a speedier release, and to be hid in the grave.

5. Seeing — Literally, “If his days are determined,” (as is the case.) This entire verse, with its three conditions, the two latter of which spring out of the former, is an hypothesis on which Job rests his touching appeal in ver.

V. 6. Turn-Withdraw thine afflicting hand from him, that he may have some present ease. ‘Till-He come to the period of his life, which thou hast allotted to him, as a man appoints a set time to an hired servant.

Verse 6. Turn from him, that he may rest] Cease to try him by afflictions and distresses, that he may enjoy some of the comforts of life, before he be removed from it: and thus, like a hireling, who is permitted by his master to take a little repose in the heat of the day, from severe labour, I shall also have a breathing time from affliction, before I come to that bound over which I cannot pass. See Job 10:20, where there is a similar request.

Verses 5, 6. Seeing his days are determined — Limited to a certain period. The number of his months is with thee — Exactly known to thee, and in thy power and disposal. Thou hast appointed his bounds, &c. — Thou hast appointed a certain end of his days, beyond which he cannot prolong his life. Turn from him, that he may rest — Withdraw thine afflicting hand from him, that he may have some present ease and comfort. Till he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day — Give him some respite till he finish his course, and come to the period of his life, which thou hast allotted him, as a man appoints a set time to a hired servant; which period will be as welcome to him as the end of his day of labour and toil is to the hireling. This idea is implied in the word hxry, jertzeh, here rendered, he shall accomplish. Which properly means, he shall be pleased, or delighted. And the sense seems to be, As the poor mercenary rests and rejoices when he has finished the work of the day, and received his wages; so must that be an acceptable and joyful time, which puts a period to the life and sufferings of a man sinking under the burden of numerous and heavy troubles, and which introduces him into a state of perfect rest and endless felicity.

6. The limit (wqj) of man’s life is known to God, and to God only. That any limit should be “appointed” (literally, made) to the existence of man is due to his sinful nature. But this divine knowledge is in nowise inconsistent with man’s free agency. The Scriptures most expressly declare that the length of life a man shall live is in some way dependent upon the kind of life he lives. Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 30:20; 1 Kings 3:14; Psalm 55:23; Isaiah 38:4, etc. Fatalism belongs not to the Scriptures — it is the creed of false religions. After the disastrous field of Ohod, Mohammed announced a new revelation, that “every man had his appointed time, whether in bed or on the field of battle.” See note on Job 15:32.

6. Accomplish — The Hebrew also signifies delight in, as a hireling does in the days — “to wit: as past, in the rest and quiet of the evening.” — Gesenius. The text is better. It is unbecoming God to treat cruelly so ephemeral a being. Man’s lot at best is that of a hireling. Job 7:1. But the hireling, however degraded his lot, has a natural right to sympathy and to rest. Job, in behalf of man, lays claim to the common rights of the serf. Third strophe — Another reason why God should be merciful to man is, the hopelessness of his death. Throughout all nature, other than human, death springs to life, but man dies forever, so far as this world is concerned, 7-12.

Verse 7. For there is hope of a tree] We must not, says Calmet, understand this of an old tree, the stem and roots of which are dried up and rotted: but there are some trees which grow from cuttings, and some which, though pulled out of the earth, and having had their roots dried and withered by long exposure to the sun and wind, will, on being replanted, take root and resume their verdure. There are also certain trees, the fibres of which are so solid, that if after several years they be steeped in water, they resume their vigour, the tubes dilate, and the blossoms or flowers which were attached to them expand; as I have often witnessed in what is called the rose of Jericho. There are few trees which will not send forth new shoots, when the stock is cut down level with the earth.

Verses 7-10. For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down — If the body of a tree be cut down, and only the stem or stump be left in the ground, yet there is hope; that it will sprout again — Hebrew, ãyljy, jachalip, will yet renew itself, will revive and flourish as the spring comes on. Though the root wax old — Begin to wither and decay; and the stock thereof die — Namely, in outward appearance; yet, through the scent of water — By means of water; scent or smell being here figuratively ascribed to a tree. The moisture of the earth, and the rain of heaven, have sufficient influence upon it to revive it, and cause it to bud; and bring forth boughs like a plant — As if it were a tree newly planted. But man dieth and wasteth away — Man, though a far nobler creature, is in a much worse condition, as to this world, for when once he loseth his present life he never recovers it. Two words are here used for man, rbg, geber, a mighty man: though mighty, he dies: µda, adam, a man of earth: being made of earth, he returns to it. He dieth and wasteth away: before death he is dying daily, continually wasting away; in death he gives up the ghost: the spirit leaves the body and returns to God, the Father of spirits, who gave it. After death, where is he? — Not where he was; his place knows him no more: his body, all that is visible of him, is rotting away in the grave. But where is the thinking, intelligent principle, the self-conscious being, the proper man? Is this nowhere? Yes, it is somewhere; and it is a very awful consideration to think where they are that have given up the ghost, and where we shall be when we give it up. It is gone into the world of spirits; gone into eternity, gone to return no more to this world.

Ver. 7. There is hope of a tree. By a beautiful climax Job expresses his hope in the resurrection of the dead. The oak sends forth shoots after it is felled; the daily and equinoctial tides return; the dry beds of rivers in tropical climates flow again with a swoln stream in the rainy season; and as men awake from sleep, so shall be the resurrection of the dead. If there be no future state, the only comfort of dying men, Job must have been devoid of reason to use all these most consoling figures of speech. See Job 19:25.

7. For — Introduces another reason for the plea in verse 6. Tender branch — Sprout. The description from verse 7 to 9 is specially applicable to the palm-tree, which is endowed with a wonderful vitality, whence it becomes a figure for youthful vigour. The Greeks gave the same name phoenix (palm-tree) to the wondrous bird which fable represented as rising again from its own ashes. “Even when centuries have at last destroyed the palm,” says Masius, whom Delitzsch quotes, “thousands of inextricable fibres of parasites cling about the stem.” In the country east of the Jordan, the walnut-tree ceases to bear much after one hundred years, and becomes hollow and decayed. It is then cut down to within two or three yards from the ground. If the trees are well watered, new shoots spring up in a year in uncommon luxuriance, and bear fruit the second year. (Wetzstein.) “The Romans,” says Rosenmuller, “made those trees to be the symbol of death which, being cut down, do not live again, and from whose roots no germs arise, such as the pine and cypress.” The revivification of nature, in contrast to the hopeless death of man, has often inspired the muse to elegiac strains, as with the poet Moschus bewailing the death of Bion; also the poets Catullus and Horace, and even the Yajur Veda. See Wordsworth, Good, or Barnes. Compare with Job’s melancholy strains the exquisite, but quite as hopeless, lines of Beattie’s Hermit: “‘Tis night,” etc., and closing with —

But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn?

O! when shall it dawn on the night of the grave?

V. 8. Die-To outward appearance.

Verses 7-10. For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down — If the body of a tree be cut down, and only the stem or stump be left in the ground, yet there is hope; that it will sprout again — Hebrew, ãyljy, jachalip, will yet renew itself, will revive and flourish as the spring comes on. Though the root wax old — Begin to wither and decay; and the stock thereof die — Namely, in outward appearance; yet, through the scent of water — By means of water; scent or smell being here figuratively ascribed to a tree. The moisture of the earth, and the rain of heaven, have sufficient influence upon it to revive it, and cause it to bud; and bring forth boughs like a plant — As if it were a tree newly planted. But man dieth and wasteth away — Man, though a far nobler creature, is in a much worse condition, as to this world, for when once he loseth his present life he never recovers it. Two words are here used for man, rbg, geber, a mighty man: though mighty, he dies: µda, adam, a man of earth: being made of earth, he returns to it. He dieth and wasteth away: before death he is dying daily, continually wasting away; in death he gives up the ghost: the spirit leaves the body and returns to God, the Father of spirits, who gave it. After death, where is he? — Not where he was; his place knows him no more: his body, all that is visible of him, is rotting away in the grave. But where is the thinking, intelligent principle, the self-conscious being, the proper man? Is this nowhere? Yes, it is somewhere; and it is a very awful consideration to think where they are that have given up the ghost, and where we shall be when we give it up. It is gone into the world of spirits; gone into eternity, gone to return no more to this world.

8. Though — If. The poet supposes another case: that the tree, instead of being cut down, grows old and dies.

V. 9. Scent-By means of water. Scent or smell, is figuratively ascribed to a tree.

Verse 9. Through the scent of water it will bud] A fine metaphor: the water acts upon the decaying and perishing tree, as strong and powerful odours from musk, otto of roses, ammonia, &c., act on a fainting or swooning person.

Verses 7-10. For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down — If the body of a tree be cut down, and only the stem or stump be left in the ground, yet there is hope; that it will sprout again — Hebrew, ãyljy, jachalip, will yet renew itself, will revive and flourish as the spring comes on. Though the root wax old — Begin to wither and decay; and the stock thereof die — Namely, in outward appearance; yet, through the scent of water — By means of water; scent or smell being here figuratively ascribed to a tree. The moisture of the earth, and the rain of heaven, have sufficient influence upon it to revive it, and cause it to bud; and bring forth boughs like a plant — As if it were a tree newly planted. But man dieth and wasteth away — Man, though a far nobler creature, is in a much worse condition, as to this world, for when once he loseth his present life he never recovers it. Two words are here used for man, rbg, geber, a mighty man: though mighty, he dies: µda, adam, a man of earth: being made of earth, he returns to it. He dieth and wasteth away: before death he is dying daily, continually wasting away; in death he gives up the ghost: the spirit leaves the body and returns to God, the Father of spirits, who gave it. After death, where is he? — Not where he was; his place knows him no more: his body, all that is visible of him, is rotting away in the grave. But where is the thinking, intelligent principle, the self-conscious being, the proper man? Is this nowhere? Yes, it is somewhere; and it is a very awful consideration to think where they are that have given up the ghost, and where we shall be when we give it up. It is gone into the world of spirits; gone into eternity, gone to return no more to this world.

9. The scent of water — In Judges 16:9 a thread of tow is represented as smelling the fire (margin); the verb corresponding to the noun of our text. Daniel 3. 27. Wherever the palm-tree grows, though in the midst of a desert, the traveller may be justified in digging for water. Such was the opinion of Sir Sydney Smith. Like a plant — “As if newly planted.” — Septuagint.

V. 10. Man-Two words are here used for man. Geber, a mighty man, tho’ mighty, dies. Adam, a man of earth, returns to it. Before death, he is dying daily, continually wasting away. In death, he giveth up the ghost, the spirit returns to God that gave it. After death, where is he? Not where he was: his place knows him no more. But is he nowhere? Yes, he is gone to the world of spirits, gone into eternity, gone, never to return to this world!

Verse 10. But man dieth] No human being ever can spring from the dead body of man; that wasteth away, corrupts, and is dissolved; for the man dies; and when he breathes out his last breath, and his body is reduced to dust, then, where is he? There is a beautiful verse in the Persian poet Khosroo, that is not unlike this saying of Job:— [Persic]

[Persic]

[Persic]

[Persic]

“I went towards the burying ground, and wept To think of the departure of friends which were captives to death; I said, Where are they! and Fate

Gave back this answer by Echo, Where are they? Thus paraphrased by a learned friend:— Beneath the cypress’ solemn shade,

As on surrounding tombs I gazed,

I wept, and thought of friends there laid, Whose hearts with warmest love had blazed. Where are those friends my heart doth lack, Whose words, in grief, gave peace? Ah, where? And Fate, by Echo, gave me back

This short but just reply, Ah, where?

Verses 7-10. For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down — If the body of a tree be cut down, and only the stem or stump be left in the ground, yet there is hope; that it will sprout again — Hebrew, ãyljy, jachalip, will yet renew itself, will revive and flourish as the spring comes on. Though the root wax old — Begin to wither and decay; and the stock thereof die — Namely, in outward appearance; yet, through the scent of water — By means of water; scent or smell being here figuratively ascribed to a tree. The moisture of the earth, and the rain of heaven, have sufficient influence upon it to revive it, and cause it to bud; and bring forth boughs like a plant — As if it were a tree newly planted. But man dieth and wasteth away — Man, though a far nobler creature, is in a much worse condition, as to this world, for when once he loseth his present life he never recovers it. Two words are here used for man, rbg, geber, a mighty man: though mighty, he dies: µda, adam, a man of earth: being made of earth, he returns to it. He dieth and wasteth away: before death he is dying daily, continually wasting away; in death he gives up the ghost: the spirit leaves the body and returns to God, the Father of spirits, who gave it. After death, where is he? — Not where he was; his place knows him no more: his body, all that is visible of him, is rotting away in the grave. But where is the thinking, intelligent principle, the self-conscious being, the proper man? Is this nowhere? Yes, it is somewhere; and it is a very awful consideration to think where they are that have given up the ghost, and where we shall be when we give it up. It is gone into the world of spirits; gone into eternity, gone to return no more to this world.

10. Wasteth away — Lies powerless. (Furst.) Lies stretched out. (Delitzsch.) A like epithet is applied to death by Homer, (Il., 8:70,) tanhleghv, “laying one out at length.” Like the tree when cut down, man, “the mighty man,” (geber,) has no inward power of recovery; he “lies powerless.” He who swayed the sceptre of a world cannot now lift an eyelid. And where he? — The very question seems to imply the continued existence of the man; but where? It has often rang through the caverns of the grave, but without response. The ancient custom (still perpetuated at the death of a Roman pontiff) was a most touching one, that of thrice calling the name of the dead man over his own pale corpse.

V. 11. As-So it is with man. Or thus, as when the waters fail from the sea, when the sea forsakes the place into which it used to flow, the river which was fed by it, decayeth and drieth up without all hopes of recovery.

Verse 11. The waters fail from the sea] I believe this refers to evaporation, and nothing else. As the waters are evaporated from the sea, and the river in passing over the sandy desert is partly exsiccated, and partly absorbed; and yet the waters of the sea are not exhausted, as these vapours, being condensed, fall down in rain, and by means of rivers return again into the sea: so man is imperceptibly removed from his fellows by death and dissolution; yet the human race is still continued, the population of the earth being kept up by perpetual generations.

Verse 11. As the waters fail from the sea — This may mean, either, 1st, As the waters go, or flow out from the sea, and return not thither again, Ecclesiastes 1:7: or, 2d, As waters, that is, some portion of the waters, are exhaled from the sea by the sun, or are received and sunk into the dry and thirsty earth: or, 3d, As the waters of the sea fail, when the sea forsakes the place into which it used to flow; and the flood decayeth and drieth up — As a flood, or a river, or a pond (for the word signifies any considerable confluence of waters) in a great drought decayeth, and is dried up, in which cases the same waters never return to their former places, so it is with man; when once the fountain of his life is dried up he dies, and never revives again as to the present life.

Ver. 11. As the waters fail from the sea, which washes down promontories, and carries the depositions to calmer places, so that seaports, like Canterbury, become inland towns; so man is buried in the grave till the heavens are no more, and then the dead shall rise again.

11. The sea — The word sea is sometimes used for the River Nile, and sometimes for the Euphrates. (Jeremiah 51:36.) The point of comparison, according to Umbreit, lies between the dried-up and rugged channel of a once flowing stream or lake, and the outstretched corpse of a once living and acting man. Compare Isaiah 19:5, where the Hebrew is almost a literal citation.

V. 12. Lieth-In his bed, the grave. ‘Till-Until the time of the general resurrection, when these visible heavens shall pass away.

Verse 12. So man lieth down] He falls asleep in his bed of earth. And riseth not] Men shall not, like cut down trees and plants, reproduce their like; nor shall they arise till the heavens are no more, till the earth and all its works are burnt up, and the general resurrection of human beings shall take place. Surely it would be difficult to twist this passage to the denial of the resurrection of the body. Neither can these expressions be fairly understood as implying Job’s belief in the materiality of the soul, and that the whole man sleeps from the day of his death to the morning of the resurrection. We have already seen that Job makes a distinction between the animal life and rational soul in man; and it is most certain that the doctrine of the materiality of the soul, and its sleep till the resurrection, has no place in the sacred records. There is a most beautiful passage to the same purpose, and with the same imagery, in Moschus’s epitaph on the death of Bion:—

Ai, ai tai malacai men epan kata kapon olwntai,

H ta clwra selina, to tJ euqalev oulon anhqon,

JUsteron au zwonti, kai eiv etov allo fuonti,

Ammev dJ, oi megaloi, kai karteroi, h sofoi andrev,

JOppote prwta qanwmev, anakooi en cqoni koila

Eudomev eu mala makron, atermona, nhgreton upnon.

Idyll. iii., ver. 100.

Alas! alas! the mallows, when they die,

Or garden herbs, and sweet Anethum’s pride,

Blooming in vigour, wake again to life,

And flourish beauteous through another year:

But we, the great, the mighty, and the wise,

When once we die, unknown in earth’s dark womb

Sleep long and drear, the endless sleep of death.

J. B. B. C.

A more cold and comfortless philosophy was never invented. The next verse shows that Job did not entertain this view of the subject.

Verse 12. So man lieth down — In his bed the grave, sleeping the sleep of death. And riseth not till the heavens be no more — That is, until the time of the general resurrection and restitution of all things, when these visible heavens shall pass away, and be no more, at least in the same form in which they are now. This whole paragraph is interpreted in a somewhat different way by a late writer. “After a tree is cut down, we see, nevertheless, the old stock flourish again, and send forth new branches; and shall man then, when he once expires, he extinct for ever? Is there no hope that he shall revive, and be raised again hereafter? Yes, there is, according to the doctrine delivered to us by our ancestors: but then they inform us, at the same time, that this resurrection shall not be but with the dissolution and renovation of the world, verses 11, 12. The waters go off from the sea, and the flood (the river) will decay and dry up. And man lieth down and riseth not till the heavens be no more; (till then) they shall not awake nor be raised out of their sleep.” The meaning seems to be, that as we see every thing in flux, and subject to change, so the whole shall one day be changed. The sea itself will at length be quite absorbed; and the running rivers, which now flow perpetually, as if supplied by everlasting springs, will nevertheless, in time, quite cease and disappear. This visible frame of things shall be dissolved, and the present heavens themselves shall be no more: and then, and not before, comes the resurrection and general judgment.

12. Riseth not — Among the most ancient and universal beliefs was that of the transmigration of souls. It was man’s natural recoil from annihilation. He preferred to live in any mode, even in the grossest form of the brute, rather than that his being should be extinguished. Job is thought by some to have in view this false belief: he means rather to affirm that at death man ceases forever from this world. There is no root, shoot, bough, or form of being that can spring out of the man when once he is dead. Till the heavens be no more — “That is, never. For things unchangeable and eternal are in Scripture compared in duration to the heavens.” Such is the view of Noyes and the German commentators. The passage really has respect to the restoration of present life in this world. The law that involves man in complete and hopeless destruction shall forever prevail, or, in Job’s language, “till the heavens be no more.” Of the same heavens of which Job speaks the psalmist says, (Psalm 102:26,) “they shall perish;” (dba, the strong Hebrew word for “perish,” — used alike of men and animals.) Isaiah (li, 6) also says of the heavens, “They shall vanish away like smoke,” wjlmn, literally, “be rubbed to pieces,” resolved into atoms like smoke. Compare Isaiah 65:17; 2 Peter 3:10, etc. So that, many think, this dark passage has in it the germ of hope, or at least, that it falls into the category of unconscious foreshadowings of scripture truth. It is evident there was a very ancient belief that the heavens and earth should be destroyed. Ovid speaks of such a prediction (Met. 50:256), Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur, etc. It was a common opinion of the Stoics that the whole world would catch fire, (Minucius Felix, 34:2,) and in its destruction “involve the very elements and the frame of the universe.” Compare Lucretius, lib. 5:97. The ancient Hindu held a similar belief. At the end of the last calpa the whole creation, nay, the host of gods themselves, will be overwhelmed in one common destruction. The sagas of the Scandinavian, and the old Runic mythology, confirm the great antiquity of this dogma, which may have had its origin in Egypt, (see PRITCHARD’S Mythology, pp. 181, 192,) or more probably in some primeval revelation. It does not appear improbable that such a tradition was in the mind of Job. If so, to say that the dead shall not be raised out of their sleep till the heavens be no more is equivalent to saying that when the heavens are no more the dead shall be raised out of their sleep. “And man that has lain down (in death) shall certainly not rise again till the heavens be dissolved.” — Septuagint.

Fourth strophe — Job’s abiding faith in God’s deep love for his intelligent creatures illumes the regions of the dead with the hope that the time shall come when God’s wrath will “turn,” and the dead be released from sheol — a hope which is immediately beclouded by the thought that God has already been preternaturally severe in punishing his transgressions, 13-17.

V. 13. The grave-The grave is not only a resting-place, but an hiding-place to the children of God. He hides them in the grave, as we hide our treasure in a place of secrecy and safety. Hide me there, not only from the storms of this life, but for the glory of a better. Until thy wrath be past-As long as our bodies lie in the grave, there are some fruits of God’s wrath against sin: until the set time comes, for their being remembered, as Noah was remembered in the ark, Genesis 8:1. Our bodies shall not be forgotten in the grave, there is a time set for their being enquired after.

Verse 13. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave] Dreadful as death is to others, I shall esteem it a high privilege; it will be to me a covert from the wind and from the tempest of this affliction and distress. Keep me secret] Hide my soul with thyself, where my enemies cannot invade my repose; or, as the poet expresses it:—

“My spirit hide with saints above,

My body in the tomb.”

Job does not appear to have the same thing in view when he entreats God to hide him in the grave; and to keep him secret, until his wrath be past. The former relates to the body; the latter to the spirit. That thou wouldest appoint me a set time] As he had spoken of the death of his body before, and the secreting of his spirit in the invisible world, he must refer here to the resurrection; for what else can be said to be an object of desire to one whose body is mingled with the dust? And remember me!] When my body has paid that debt of death which it owes to thy Divine justice, and the morning of the resurrection is come, when it may be said thy wrath, Ëpa appecha, “thy displeasure,” against the body is past, it having suffered the sentence denounced by thyself: Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die; then remember me—raise my body, unite my spirit to it, and receive both into thy glory for ever.

Verse 13. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave — The grave is not only a resting-place, but a hiding-place to the children of God: Christ has the key of the grave to open and let in now, and to let out at the resurrection. God hides his people in the grave as we hide our treasure in a place of secrecy and safety; and he that hides will find what he has hid, and nothing shall be lost. O that thou wouldst hide me, not only from the storms and troubles of this life, but for the bliss and glory of a better life; let me lie in the grave reserved for immortality, in secret from all the world, but not from thee, not from those eyes which saw my substance when first curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, Psalm 139:15, 16. Thus, it was not only in a passionate weariness of this life that he wished to die, but in a pious assurance of a better life, to which at length he should arise. Until thy wrath be past — As long as our bodies lie in the grave there are some effects of God’s wrath against sin, but when the body is raised, that wrath is wholly past, and death, the last enemy, is totally destroyed. That thou wouldest appoint me a set time — Not only fix a time when thou wilt end my sufferings and my life, but when thou wilt remember my flesh lodged in the grave, as thou didst remember Noah and every living thing in the ark, Genesis 8:1. The bodies of the saints shall not be forgotten in the dust; there is a time appointed, a set time, for their being inquired after.

13. Thou wouldest hide me — As men, for protection, hide treasures in the earth. The dead in the grave are God’s hidden treasures. Compare Psalm 83:3. In the grave — In sheol. See Excursus, p. 72. Gloomiest life in sheol is better than extinction of being. Wrath be past — Death itself was the great wrath for whose turning (bwv) the pious dead in the earliest times were represented as waiting. (See LANGE’S Genesis, 275.) The ancients buried their dead in caverns or sepulchres of the rocks. These naturally suggested the idea of a covert from the tempest. The Hebrew hoped that a time would come for the storm to cease, and that the dominion of death, though long protracted, would have an end. A set time — In the opinion of Dr. Adam Clarke this refers to the resurrection: “for what else can be said to be an object of desire to one whose body is mingled with the dust?”

V. 14. Shall he live?-He shall not in this world. Therefore I will patiently wait ‘till that change comes, which will put a period to my calamities.

Verse 14. If a man die, shall he live again?] The Chaldee translates, If a wicked man die, can he ever live again? or, he can never live again. The Syriac and Arabic thus: “If a man die, shall he revive? Yea, all the days of his youth he awaits till his old age come.” The Septuagint: “If a man die, shall he live, having accomplished the days of his life? I will endure till I live again.” Here is no doubt, but a strong persuasion, of the certainty of the general resurrection.

All the days of my appointed time] yabx tsebai, “of my warfare;” see on Job 7:1. Will I await till ytpylj chaliphathi, my renovation, come. This word is used to denote the springing again of grass, Psalm 90:5, 6, after it had once withered, which is in itself a very expressive emblem of the resurrection.

Verse 14. If a man die, shall he live again? — He shall not in this world, but he shall in another and better; and, therefore, all the days of my appointed time will I wait — Hebrew, yabx, tsebai, of my warfare, namely, with my spiritual enemies, or of my service and suffering, or of the station and place God has assigned me. The idea which the word conveys is partly, at least, that of a post or station given a man by God to maintain, till he be released from it, and called to a better state; as if Job had said, Whatever station or condition God shall please to appoint me, either here or in the intermediate state, I shall still wait in earnest expectation for the future renovation and resurrection; here evidently intended by the change which he expected to come. “I must insist upon it,” says Mr. Peters. “that Job, in this verse, declares very clearly his hope of a future resurrection. I know it is a common opinion, that by the change here mentioned, is meant the change of death; but the sense above given suits best with the context, as also with the Hebrew word hpylj, chalipah, which properly signifies a change for the better, a renewal.” Houbigant renders the beginning of this verse, For though a man die, yet he shall revive again; and, therefore, I will wait, &c, observing, in agreement with Mr. Peters, that nothing can be so absurd as to suppose the words contain any doubt of a future life.

Ver. 14, 15. If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. The LXX, ewv palin genwmai, “till I am made anew,” by a resurrection from the dead. Our judicious Poole, from the words which presede and those which follow, refers this passage to the hopes which Job had of the resurrection of the dead. In this hope he was comforted to wait, all the days of his appointed time; literally, as in chap. 7:1, “all the days of his warfare,” till he should enter into peace; till thou shalt call, and I will answer thee.

14. Shall he live? — That which follows is equivalent to an affirmative answer to this momentous question, since Job is emboldened, to wait or hope (yahhal) till his change or reviviscence shall come. “Upon closer reflection it is clear to him that the wish of the preceding verse comprehends within itself a renewal of life from the dead. Also he asks himself, ‘If man dies, lives he again?’ and without giving himself an answer, he proceeds to take pleasure in the thought, and, full of ecstasy, to set before himself the consequences that follow ‘all the days,’” etc. (Dillmann.) Even Renan makes here an important admission; “Job floats,” he says, “between despair and confidence. Sometimes he is struck with the fact that man is never restored to life, (ressuscite;) sometimes he thinks that God could well recall him to life, and compares himself in sheol (l’enfer) to a soldier on duty who waits till he may be relieved.” If a man die — the strong man, the being of might, (geber,) — shall he live? If such a being as man die! (A proper emphasis of the question gives the aroma of hope.) The Chinese philosopher Confucius evaded a similar question. “I venture to ask about death,” said Ke Loo. He was answered, “While you do not know life, how can you know about death?” (Analects, xi, sec. 11.) Appointed time — abx, warfare. Compare Job 7:1. “The miserable state of the shades in sheol is compared to the hard service of soldiers on guard.” — Gesenius. My change — ytpylj. This wondrous word hhalipha is sometimes used for the relief of a guard or the release of a sentinel from his post. Some change from, or in, the estate of death is plainly indicated by the use of this word. In the seventh verse it designated the reviviscence of a tree, and it is strongly presumable that it is used here for renewal of life, whether in the military sense of relief from a darksome post, or in the sense of reanimation. With consummate skill Job may have blended the two in a mixed metaphor, a rhetorical form common with the Apostle Paul. The Septuagint reads it, “I will wait till I am made again.” Though mingled with gloom, the thought is a sublime one: The dead, the righteous dead, in their dismal abode, await a coming One who shall bring deliverance. Job’s spirit already pierces through the darkness of sheol, and descries the day-spring of hope. The lineaments may not be distinct, yet even here he catches a glimpse of “THE LAST” — of Him who shall stand upon the dust. Job 19:25.

V. 15. Answer thee-Thou shalt call my soul to thyself: and I will chearfully answer, Here I am: knowing thou wilt have a desire to the work of thy hands-A love for the soul which thou hast made, and new-made by thy grace.

Verse 15. Thou shalt call] Thou shalt say There shall be time no longer: Awake, ye dead! and come to judgment!

And I will answer thee] My dissolved frame shall be united at thy call; and body and soul shall be rejoined.

Thou wilt have a desire] ãskt tichsoph, “Thou wilt pant with desire;” or, “Thou wilt yearn over the work of thy hands.” God has subjected the creature to vanity, in hope; having determined the resurrection. Man is one of the noblest works of God. He has exhibited him as a master-piece of his creative skill, power, and goodness. Nothing less than the strongest call upon justice could have induced him thus to destroy the work of his hands. No wonder that he has an earnest desire towards it; and that although man dies, and is as water spilt upon the ground that cannot be gathered up again; yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him. Even God is represented as earnestly longing for the ultimate reviviscence of the sleeping dust. He cannot, he will not, forget the work of his hands.

Verse 15. Thou shalt call and I will answer thee — 1st, At death, thou shalt call my body to the grave and my soul to thyself, and I will cheerfully answer, Here I am. Gracious souls readily answer death’s summons, and appear to his writ. Their spirits are not forcibly required of them, as was that of the rich man, Luke 12:20, but willingly resigned by them, and the earthly tabernacle not violently pulled down, but voluntarily laid down. 2d, At the resurrection thou shalt call me out of the grave by the voice of the archangel, and I will answer and come at thy call. For thou wilt have a desire to the work of thy hands — A love for the soul, which thou hast made, and new-made by thy grace; and for the body, which is also the work of thy hands, and to which thou wilt have a desire, having prepared glory for it in a world of glory.

Ver. 14, 15. If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. The LXX, ewv palin genwmai, “till I am made anew,” by a resurrection from the dead. Our judicious Poole, from the words which presede and those which follow, refers this passage to the hopes which Job had of the resurrection of the dead. In this hope he was comforted to wait, all the days of his appointed time; literally, as in chap. 7:1, “all the days of his warfare,” till he should enter into peace; till thou shalt call, and I will answer thee.

15. Have a desire — Pine or yearn for; primarily, become pale, (like silver,) as when, under strong emotion, the blood withdraws from the face. The figure is a forcible one to express the divine yearning over the dead, a yearning that culminates in their recall to life. Thou shalt call — And that “call” shall penetrate into sheol. The work of thine hands — The human body (comp. Job 10:9). This passage (vers. 13-15) is one of prime significance in the olden theology of hope. Hitherto Job’s despair had surrounded the abode of the dead with the deepest gloom. To his disconsolate mind it was “a land of darkness, as darkness itself.” Job 10:22. But now, trembling rays of light arise from the distant horizon — from the other side of sheol. As in the total eclipse of the sun the opposite horizon is lighted up with the bright tints of an early dawn, so here, where there was apparently an entire extinction of hope, a dawn rises upon the sky. “The hope of eternal life,” says an old commentator, “is a flower which grows on the verge of the abyss.”

V. 16. Numbereth-Thou makest a strict enquiry into all my actions.

Verse 16. For now thou numberest my steps] ht[ yk ki attah, ALTHOUGH thou, &c. Though thou, by thy conduct towards me, seemest bent on my utter destruction, yet thou delightest in mercy, and I shall be saved.

Verses 16, 17. For now — Or rather, But now, for this seems to be added by way of opposition, as if he had said, I believe thou wilt pity, help, and deliver me, and even wonderfully change my person, state, and place; but, for the present, it is far otherwise with me. Thus Job returns to his complaints; and, though he is not without hope of future felicity, he finds it hard to get over his present grievances. Thou numberest my steps — Thou makest a strict inquiry into all my actions, that thou mayest find out all my errors. Dost thou not watch over my sin? — The Hebrew should rather be rendered, Do not watch over, or take notice of, my sin, as the Chaldee paraphrast writes. Thus the vulgar Latin, Parce peccatis meis, Spare my sins; that is, forbear to punish me for them. He longed to go hence, to that world where God’s wrath would be past, because now he was under the continual tokens of it; as a child, under the severe discipline of the rod, longs to be of age! As if he had said, O that my change were come! for now thou seemest to number my steps, and watch over my sin, and seal it up in a bag, verse 17, as writings, or other choice things are preserved, that they may be all brought forth upon occasion, and not one of them forgotten; or, as bills of endictment are kept safe to be produced against the prisoner. Thou keepest all my sins in thy memory. But herein Job speaks rashly; or, rather, this verse ought to be rendered, in conformity with what was observed concerning a clause of the last, Do not seal up my transgressions in a bag, nor note my iniquities in thy register.

16. For now — Returning to his complaint concerning the evils of life, he gives the reason why he desires the release or respite spoken of in the preceding verse. It is that God “numbers his steps;” that is, holds him as a transgressor, (as in Job 13:27,) and keeps watch for his sins, lest, perchance, any of them should escape punishment. Dost thou not watch, etc. — Some (as Delitzsch) construe this phrase to be an affirmation that God does not keep back wrath, but punishes immediately. To this there is the twofold objection of weakened and unharmonious sense and of the necessity of supplying aph, wrath.

V. 17. Sealed-As writings or other choice things, that they may all be brought forth upon occasion, and not one of them forgotten. Thou keepest all my sins in thy memory. But herein Job speaks rashly.

Verse 17. My transgression is sealed up in a bag] An allusion to the custom of collecting evidence of state transgressions, sealing them up in a bag, and presenting them to the judges and officers of state to be examined, in order to trial and judgment. Just at this time (July, 1820) charges of state transgressions, sealed up in a GREEN BAG, and presented to the two houses of parliament, for the examination of a secret committee, are making a considerable noise in the land. Some suppose the allusion is to money sealed up in bags; which is common in the East. This includes two ideas: 1. Job’s transgressions were all numbered; not one was passed by. 2. They were sealed up; so that none of them could be lost. These bags were indifferently sewed or sealed, the two words in the text.

Verses 16, 17. For now — Or rather, But now, for this seems to be added by way of opposition, as if he had said, I believe thou wilt pity, help, and deliver me, and even wonderfully change my person, state, and place; but, for the present, it is far otherwise with me. Thus Job returns to his complaints; and, though he is not without hope of future felicity, he finds it hard to get over his present grievances. Thou numberest my steps — Thou makest a strict inquiry into all my actions, that thou mayest find out all my errors. Dost thou not watch over my sin? — The Hebrew should rather be rendered, Do not watch over, or take notice of, my sin, as the Chaldee paraphrast writes. Thus the vulgar Latin, Parce peccatis meis, Spare my sins; that is, forbear to punish me for them. He longed to go hence, to that world where God’s wrath would be past, because now he was under the continual tokens of it; as a child, under the severe discipline of the rod, longs to be of age! As if he had said, O that my change were come! for now thou seemest to number my steps, and watch over my sin, and seal it up in a bag, verse 17, as writings, or other choice things are preserved, that they may be all brought forth upon occasion, and not one of them forgotten; or, as bills of endictment are kept safe to be produced against the prisoner. Thou keepest all my sins in thy memory. But herein Job speaks rashly; or, rather, this verse ought to be rendered, in conformity with what was observed concerning a clause of the last, Do not seal up my transgressions in a bag, nor note my iniquities in thy register.

Ver. 17. My transgression is sealed up in a bag. Hosea apparently applies this figure of speech to the sin of Ephraim: Hosea 13:12. The gloss of the elder critics is to the sealing up of gold and silver in bags; others refer it to tribunals, where papers of indictment are opened against offenders. In the year 1820, we had much noise in England about a “green bag.”

17. Sealed… in a bag — The money that is collected together in the treasuries of eastern princes is told up in certain equal sums, put into bags, and sealed. (Chardin.) The ancients used a seal where we use a lock. Even to the present day, in eastern countries, bags of money pass current without being counted, so long as the seal remains unbroken. Sins are treasured up for a day of final reckoning. They are thus declared to be of moment in the sight of God. All sins are against God, and involve not only his law, but his entire being. One by one, and silently, they enter into the divine remembrance, and none can be lost. Sewest up — Literally, sewest on; the taphal of Job 13:4, which leads some to interpret it, “Thou addest iniquity to iniquity, one upon the other,” (Mercerus,) thus charging upon God that he makes the sins of his creature to be greater than they are. But such a sense is incongruous. Job means simply to say that God takes the greatest precaution lest any sins should be lost — even to the sewing them up against any possible rending of their receptacle. Fifth strophe — Job’s final outcry to God feelingly urges man’s dismal fate, with nature, God, and sheol against him, 18-22.

V. 18. And-As when a great mountain falls, by an earthquake or inundation, it moulders away like a fading leaf, (as the Hebrew word signifies) and as the rock, when by the violence of winds or earthquakes it is removed out of its place, and thrown down, is never re-advanced: and as the waters by continual droppings, wear away the stones, so that they can never be made whole again: and as thou wastest away, by a great and violent inundation, the things which grow out of the dust of the earth, herbs, and fruits, and plants, which once washed away are irrecoverably lost; in like manner, thou destroyest the hope of man: when man dies, all hope of his living again in this world is lost.

Verse 18. The mountain falling cometh to naught] Every thing in nature is exposed to mutability and decay:—even mountains themselves may fall from their bases, and be dashed to pieces; or be suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake; and, by the same means, the strongest and most massive rocks may be removed.

Verses 18, 19. As the mountain falling cometh to naught, &c. — As when a great mountain falls, by an earthquake or inundation, it moulders away like a fading leaf, (as the Hebrew ward signifies,) and as the rock, when, by the violence of winds or earthquakes, it is removed out of its place, and thrown down, is never re-advanced; and as the waters, by continual droppings, wear away the stones, so that they can never be made whole again; and as thou wastest away, by a great and violent inundation, the things which grow out of the dust of the earth, herbs, and fruits, and plants, which once washed away are irrecoverably lost; in like manner thou destroyest the hope of man: when man dies, all hope of his living again in this world is lost. Thus, as before he declared the hopelessness of man’s restoration from death to this animal life, by way of opposition to such things as did, in a manner, rise from death to life, verses 7-10; so now he declares the same thing, by way of similitude to such things as, being once lost and gone, are past all hopes of recovery.

18. And surely — But. He now proceeds to sum up. Cometh to nought — Decayeth. Literally, withereth like a leaf. A bold metaphor. Zophar had promised Job, if he would repent, enduring prosperity, (Job 11:15-20.) In a world, Job tacitly replies, where there is nothing substantial — where things most stable are overwhelmed with destruction — there is nothing for man to hope. Nature is at war with itself, and God with man. Instability characterizes every conceivable work of God’s creative power. AElian says, that it was the general opinion in his time that mounts Parnassus, Olympus, and Etna had much diminished in size.

Verse 19. The waters wear the stones] Even the common stones are affected in the same way. Were even earthquakes and violent concussions of nature wanting, the action of water, either running over them as a stream, or even falling upon them in drops, will wear these stones. Hence the proverb:—

Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed saepe cadendo.

“Constant droppings will make a hole in a flint.”

Ek qaminhv raqamiggov, okwv logov, aiev ioisav,

CJ a liqov ev rwcmon koilainetai.

“From frequent dropping, as the proverb says, perpetually falling, even a stone is hollowed into a hole.”

Thou washest away the things] Alluding to sudden falls of rain occasioning floods, by which the fruits of the earth are swept away; and thus the hope of man—the grain for his household, and provender for his cattle, is destroyed.

Verses 18, 19. As the mountain falling cometh to naught, &c. — As when a great mountain falls, by an earthquake or inundation, it moulders away like a fading leaf, (as the Hebrew ward signifies,) and as the rock, when, by the violence of winds or earthquakes, it is removed out of its place, and thrown down, is never re-advanced; and as the waters, by continual droppings, wear away the stones, so that they can never be made whole again; and as thou wastest away, by a great and violent inundation, the things which grow out of the dust of the earth, herbs, and fruits, and plants, which once washed away are irrecoverably lost; in like manner thou destroyest the hope of man: when man dies, all hope of his living again in this world is lost. Thus, as before he declared the hopelessness of man’s restoration from death to this animal life, by way of opposition to such things as did, in a manner, rise from death to life, verses 7-10; so now he declares the same thing, by way of similitude to such things as, being once lost and gone, are past all hopes of recovery.

Ver. 19. The waters wear the stones, by warring against the contour cliffs. Critics refer this, as in Schultens, to the deluge of Noah, which made the mountains fall, as in ver. 18. The ancients knew much of the destruction of the earth’s surface by diluvian tides. See on Genesis 8:3.

19. Washest away, etc. — Its floods (referring to “waters,” used collectively) wash away the dust of the earth, leaving desolation in their track. The gradation of the passage is peculiar — it follows the course of disintegration: from mountains to rocks, from rocks to stones, thence to the dust of the earth; and thus the mountain comes to nought. Nature and man alike decay away into dust.

V. 20. Prevailest-When once thou takest away this life, it is gone forever. Sendest-To his long home.

Verse 20. Thou prevailest for ever against him] It is impossible for him to withstand thee: every stroke of thine brings him down. Thou changest his countenance] Probably an allusion to the custom of covering the face, when the person was condemned, and sending him away to execution. See the case of Haman, in the note on Esther, See Clarke “Es 7:8”.

Verse 20. Thou prevailest for ever against him — When once thou takest away this life, it is gone for ever; for he speaks not here of man’s future and eternal life in another world. And he passeth — That is, he dieth: man’s death is often called a passage or a going, to intimate that it is not an annihilation, but only a translation of him into another place and state. Thou changest his countenance — That is, his visage, which, by death and its harbingers, is quite altered, both in colour and shape. When a man has been a few days sick, how apparent is the change in his countenance! and much more when he has been a few minutes dead! The countenance that was majestic and awful, becomes mean and despicable; that which was lovely and amiable, becomes ghastly and frightful! Where then is the admired beauty? Nay, the approach of death will frequently, through discomposing the mind, make the strongest and stoutest to change countenance: it will make the most cheerful and smiling countenance to look grave and serious, and the most bold and daring to look pale and timorous. By changing his countenance, may also be meant changing the face and state of his affairs, as to worldly riches, pleasures, and honours; all which he leaves behind him. Thou sendest him away — To his long home, by death.

20. Thou prevailest — Existence is made up of assaults upon the health and life of man. Subtle disease, unforeseen calamity, fickle temperatures, carking sorrow, “the arrow that flieth by day,” and the terror that lurketh in the night, are God’s agents ever hurtling against the citadel of life and calling aloud, “Eternity is near.” Thou changest his countenance — Decay is the seal death stamps upon its victim in token of victory. “I am not so much afraid of death as ashamed thereof. ‘Tis the very disgrace and ignominy of our nature, that in a moment can so disfigure us that our nearest friends, wife and children, stand afraid, and start at us.” — Sir Thomas Browne.

V. 21. Knoweth not-Either is ignorant of all such events: or, is not concerned or affected with them. A dead or dying man minds not these things.

Verse 21. His sons come to honour] When dead, he is equally indifferent and unconscious whether his children have met with a splendid or oppressive lot in life; for as to this world, when man dies, in that day all his thoughts perish.

Verse 21. His sons come to honour — Hebrews wdbky, jicbedu: increase either in number or in greatness. The LXX. render it, pollwn de genomenwn, become many; and the word wr[xyw, vejitzgnaru, and they are brought low, they interpret in the opposite sense, ean de oligoi genwntai, if they be diminished, or become few. He knoweth it not, &c. — Either, 1st, He is ignorant of all such events; or, 2d, Is not concerned nor affected with them. A dead or dying man minds not these things. The consideration of this should moderate our cares concerning our children and families. God will know what becomes of them or happens to them, when we are gone. To him, therefore, let us commit them: with him let us leave them; and not burden ourselves with needless, fruitless cares concerning them.

21. He knoweth it not — The dead are ignorant of what takes place among the living. Compare Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6. The poet laureate has transferred to his page the painful thought of Job.

His little daughter, whose sweet face

He kissed, taking his last embrace,

Becomes dishonour to her race —

His sons grow up that bear his name,

Some grow to honour, some to shame;

But he is chill to praise or blame.

— TENNYSON — Two Voices.

On the contrary, the religion of Confucius, which consists of the worship of ancestors, hinges upon the knowledge that the dead still retain of the living. “They are regarded as watching with affectionate interest all the varied fortunes of their progeny, and urging them along the beaten road of duty to a higher and happier state of being.” — HARDWICKE, Christ, etc. This dogma, apparently harmless, deteriorated into the dethronement of Deity and the worship of the dead. The ethics of Aristotle (i, chap. ix) read almost like a comment upon our text. He argues that “if any thing does pierce the veil and reach them, it must be something trivial and small, either in itself or to them.”

Verse 22. But his flesh upon him shall have pain] The sum of the life of man is this, pain of body and distress of soul; and he is seldom without the one or the other, and often oppressed by both. Thus ends Job’s discourse on the miserable state and condition of man.

THE last verse of the preceding chapter has been differently translated and explained.

Mr. Good’s version is the following, which he vindicates in a learned note:—

For his flesh shall drop away from him;

And his soul shall become a waste from him.

The Chaldee thus: “Nevertheless his flesh, on account of the worms, shall grieve over him; and his soul, in the house of judgment, shall wail over him.” In another copy of this version it is thus: “Nevertheless his flesh, before the window is closed over him, shall grieve; and his soul, for seven days of mourning, shall bewail him in the house of his burial.” I shall give the Hebrew:—

baky wyl[ wrcb Ëa

Ach besaro alaiv yichab,

lbat wyl[ wvpnw

Venaphsho alaiv teebal.

Which Mr. Stock translates thus, both to the spirit and letter:— But over him his flesh shall grieve;

And over him his breath shall mourn.

“In the daring spirit of oriental poetry,” says he, “the flesh, or body, and the breath, are made conscious beings; the former lamenting its putrefaction in the grave, the latter mourning over the mouldering clay which it once enlivened.”

This version is, in my opinion, the most natural yet offered. The Syriac and Arabic present nearly the same sense: “But his body shall grieve over him; and his soul be astonished over him.”

Coverdale follows the Vulgate: Whyle he lyveth his flesh must have travayle; and whyle the soul is in him, he must be in sorowe.

On Job 14:2. I have referred to the following beautiful lines, which illustrate these finely figurative texts:—

He cometh forth as a FLOWER, and is CUT Down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

All flesh is GRASS, and all the goodliness thereof is as the FLOWER of the field.

The GRASS withereth, the FLOWER fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

The morning flowers display their sweets,

And gay their silken leaves unfold;

As careless of the noonday heats,

As fearless of the evening cold.

Nipp’d by the wind’s untimely blast,

Parch’d by the sun’s directer ray,

The momentary glories waste,

The short-lived beauties die away.

So blooms the human face divine,

When youth its pride of beauty shows;

Fairer than spring the colours shine,

And sweeter than the virgin rose.

Or worn by slowly-rolling years,

Or broke by sickness in a day,

The fading glory disappears,

The short-lived beauties die away.

Yet these, new rising from the tomb,

With lustre brighter far shall shine;

Revive with ever-during bloom,

Safe from diseases and decline.

Let sickness blast, let death devour,

If heaven must recompense our pains:

Perish the grass and fade the flower,

If firm the word of God remains.

See a Collection of Poems on Sundry Occasions, by the Rev. Samuel Wesley, Master of Blundell’s School, Tiverton.

JOB

Verse 22. But his flesh upon him shall have pain — Or, while his flesh is upon him; and his soul within him — While the soul is clothed with, or united to, the body, he feels sharp pains in his body, and bitter grief in his soul. Dying work is generally hard work; dying pangs sore pangs. It is folly, therefore, for men to defer their repentance to a deathbed, and to have that to do, which is the one thing needful, when they are really unfit to do any thing. But it is true wisdom, by making our peace with God in Christ, and keeping a good conscience, to treasure up comforts, which will support and relieve us against the pains and sorrows of a dying hour.

22. Upon him and within him are the same, (wyl[,) and signify either “on his own account,” or better, in him. “He no longer knows and perceives the things of the upper world, he is henceforth conscious only of his pain and sorrow.” — Dillmann. The repetition of in him is significant; as much as to say, flesh and soul are equally essential to the identity of the man. In the intimation that man’s condition in sheol is by no means one of abstract personality, we have the germ of the vastly expanded disclosure given Job 19:26, 27, of a future substantial union of the two. Some weakly suppose that Job speaks of the infirmities of age; others, (Delitzsch, Umbreit. etc.,) that he means the literal grave. According to the latter, Job employs a figure which attributes life to things inanimate. The dead body is regarded as suffering pain on account of its disconsolate, isolated condition. Job elsewhere speaks in like figure of the clods of the valley, that they shall be sweet to him. Job 21:33,