Job 14

Notes

Man that is born of a poor, weak, frail woman, through whom he derives guilt, curses, corruptions, and infirmities, is of few days, and so surfeited with troubles that he needs pity rather than a violent hand to cut him off. 2. He makes a sparkling and fair show for a few days or hours, and then is cut down by an untimely death, or gradually, and without substantial happiness, posts through age into the eternal state. 3. And wilt thou, O God, debase thyself to take notice of, frown on, or contend with such an insignificant creature, or to hale to thy tribunal and execute strict justice upon me! 4. How is it possible for such as are sinfully corrupted themselves to produce innocent children! Why then should I, who am by nature no worse than others, be so peculiarly punished? 5, 6. Since the period of every man's life is unalterably fixed by thy purpose and providence, why shouldest thou now torment, and not let me alone, till I have contentedly accomplished my appointed service, and obtained the wished-for evening of death? 7-12. And the rather since there is no hope that men once dead will revive into life like the stumps of old trees in a well-watered soil; but will lie crumbled into dust, and quite insensible, till the last day. 13. O that thou wouldest hide me in the state of the dead, and cover me with a vail, till this storm of thy wrath blow over! or set some limit of time and degree to thy wrath, and in pity remember me! 14. Then, however impossible it be for men to rise from the dead before the last day, I should patiently, all the days of my troublesome warfare, wait for my dying hour; and no less patiently wait for my glorious change at the resurrection. 15. Then, in love to thy poor creature, thou wouldest by death call me to thy judgment-seat, and I should readily come: and at the resurrection thou shalt, in love to me, call me up from the grave, and I will gladly obey. 16. But now thou wrathfully observest all the steps of my life, and, as it were, greedily markest the smallest trips of my conduct in order to punish them. 17. The least of my sins of infirmity is as carefully preserved in thy remembrance against me as if it were a precious treasure; and thou huntest after forged calumnies to add to my sin and punish me for it. 18, 19. But there is no more hope of men's recovery from death, or of me from this calamity, than that fallen mountains should raise themselves up, or removed rocks resume their place, or worn stones should grow again; or that which is carried away by a flood should be brought back and the devastations repaired. 20. None can resist thy deadly stroke, but must pass into eternity whenever thou requirest. Thou wrathfully changest his countenance, spoilest his beauty, and expellest him as a leper from thy camp on earth. 21. And then whatever glory, power, or honour, or whatever debasement, disgrace, or misery, his posterity meet with, he neither knows nor regards it. 22. But his body, after pains in death, shall corrupt in the grave; and his soul, imbittered in death, often removes to an eternal anguish in hell.

Ver. 4. [As water cannot by its own gravity rise higher than its fountainhead, neither can a descendant of Adam and Eve become by their own efforts better than they; and they, alas! were ungrateful rebels. Blessed be his name who, while we were yet enemies, hath reconciled us by the death of his Son, Ro. 5. 10. C.]

Ver. 5. ['Job had before deplored his miserable state by nature, ch. 3. 1, and he here acknowledges himself to have been conceived and born in sin, cf. Ps. 51. 5; and he pleads the corruption of human nature, which is a consequence of the fall of man, as a reason for clemency on the part of God. It is remarkable that God himself after the flood had suggested that plea, as is recorded in Genesis' (Wordsworth). P.]

Ver. 9. [Scent. Literally, odour of water. The Arabs apply the word to any exhalation, whether aromatic or vaporous. C.]

Ver. 12. [There is a prophecy implied illegible this declaration. 'They shall not awake till the heavens be no more;' consequently when the heavens do pass away they shall awake, there will be a general resurrection. P.]

Ver. 17. [A reference to the eastern method of sewing up and sealing purses of money, which pass current without opening, either for purchases or payment of debts. See Capper's Passage to India. C.]

Ver. 22. [A melancholy picture of life, a sore disease without human remedy. But, 'blessed are they that (rightly) mourn, for they shall be comforted.' 'The sorrow of the world worketh death; but godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation,' 2 Co. 7. 10. C.]

Reflections.—If human life be so short, so sinful, and so wretched; if death and an awful eternity be so near; why should any be proud! Why unconcerned about spiritual, about eternal happiness! Why not live on that gracious God who hath a feeling of our infirmities; and look and long for that rest which remaineth for the people of God! Awful and awakening, though comfortable and heart-composing, are believing views of death and of the resurrection from the dead: and happy is the thought that while my body, as precious dust, sleeps in Jesus' arms of kindly care, my soul shall retire to sit with him on his throne, and there wait till my great, my last change come! If grace has changed my heart, death hath changed its nature to me: and the hope of a glorious resurrection is enough to support me under every human trouble. Everything around admonishes me of death: and nothing can resist it when God gives it the commission. Sharp are its pains and strange is the change it makes! It separates the chiefest friends! In view of it, to render me always content, let me maintain kind thoughts of God and a deep sense of my sin. And at last let it find me weaned from this perishing world, disengaged from all but a God in Christ; and singing, O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory!