Job 3:19

19 A little man and (a) great man be there, and a servant (is) free from his lord.

Job 3:19 Meaning and Commentary

Job 3:19

The small and great are there
Both as to age, and with respect to bulk and strength of body, and also to estate and dignity; children and men, or those of low and high stature, or in a mean or more exalted state of life, as to riches and honour, these all come to the grave without any difference, and lie there without any distinction


FOOTNOTES:

F25 "little and great are there all one"; as Mr. Broughton renders the words, see ( Revelation 20:12 ) ;

and the servant [is] free from his master;
death dissolves all relations among men, and takes away the power that one has legally over another, as the husband over the wife, who at death is loosed from the law and power of her husband, ( Romans 7:2 ) ; and so parents over their children, and masters over their servants; there the master and the servant are together, without any superiority of the one to the other: the consideration of all the above things made death and the state of the dead in the grave appear to Job much more preferable than life in his present circumstances; and therefore, since it had not seized on him sooner, and as soon as he before had wished it had, he desires it might not be long before it came upon him, as in ( Job 3:20-26 ) .


F25 "Grandia cum parvis Orcus metit". Horat. Ep. l. 2. ep. 2. ver. 178. "----Mista senum ac juvenum densantur funera". Horat. Carmin. l. 1. Ode. 28.

Job 3:19 In-Context

17 There wicked men ceased of (making) noise, and there men made weary of strength rested. (There the wicked cease making noise, and there the strong, made weary, rest.)
18 And sometime men bound together (now be) without dis-ease, they heard not the voice of the wrongful asker. (And those who before were bound together, now be without unease, or distress; they hear no more their taskmaster's voice.)
19 A little man and (a) great man be there, and a servant (is) free from his lord.
20 Why is light given to the wretch, and life to them that be in bitterness of soul? (Why is light given to the wretch, and life to those who have a bitter soul?)
21 Which abide death, and it cometh not; as men that dig out treasure, (They who wait for death, but it cometh not; like men who dig out treasure,)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.