View Job 14 in the note window.
Man's life is but short, sorrowful, and sinful; on which consideration
he pleads for mercy, ver, 1 - 6.
Other creatures revive, but man does not, ver. 7 - 12.
Various wishes and complaints, ver. 13 - 22.
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.
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.
4: Not one - No man. This is the prerogative of thy grace, which
therefore I humbly implore.
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.
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.
8: Die - To outward appearance.
9: Scent - By means of water. Scent or smell, is figuratively
ascribed to a tree.
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!
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.
12: Lieth - In his bed, the grave. 'Till - Until the time of the
general resurrection, when these visible heavens shall pass away.
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, (Ge 8:1). Our bodies shall not be forgotten
in the grave, there is a time set for their being enquired after.
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.
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.
16: Numbereth - Thou makest a strict enquiry into all my actions.
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.
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.
20: Prevailest - When once thou takest away this life, it is gone
forever. Sendest - To his long home.
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.
