They are destroyed from morning to evening
That is, those that dwell in houses of clay, before described;
the meaning is, that they are always exposed to death, and liable
to it every day they live; not only such who are persecuted for
the sake of religion, but all men in common, for of such are both
the text and context; who have always the seeds of mortality and
death in them, that is continually working in them; and every
day, even from morning to evening, are innumerable instances of
the power of death over men; and not only some there are, whose
sun rises in the morning and sets at evening, who are like grass
in the morning, gay, and green, and by evening cut down and
withered, live but a day, and some not that, but even it is true
of all men, comparatively speaking, they begin to die the day
they begin to live; so that the wise man takes no notice of any
intermediate time between a time to be born and a time to die, (
Ecclesiastes 3:2 ) ;
so frail and short is the life of man; his days are but as an
hand's breadth, ( Psalms 39:5 ) ;
they perish for ever:
which is not to be understood of the second or eternal death
which some die; for this is not the case of all; those that
believe in Christ shall not perish for ever, but have everlasting
life; but this respects not only the long continuance of men
under the power of death until the resurrection, which is not
contradicted by thus expression; but it signifies that the dead
never return to this mortal life again, at least the instances
are very rare; their families, friends, and houses, that knew
them, know them no more; they return no more to their worldly
business or enjoyments, see ( Job 7:9 Job 7:10 ) ( 10:21 ) ;
without any regarding [it];
their death; neither they themselves nor others, expecting it so
soon, and using no means to prevent it, and which, if made use
of, would not have availed, their appointed time being come; or
"without putting" F11, either without putting light into
them, as Sephorno, which can only be true of some; or with out
putting the hand, either their own or another's, to destroy them,
being done by the hand of God, by a distemper of his sending, or
by one providence or another; or without putting the heart to it,
which comes to the sense of our version; though death is so
frequent every day, yet it is not taken notice of; men do not lay
it to heart, so as to consider of their latter end, and repent of
their sins, and reform from them, that they may not be their
ruin; and this is and would be the case of all men, were it not
for the grace of God.
F11 (Myvm ylbm) "propter non ponentem", Montanus; "sub. manum", Codurcus; "cor", R. Levi, Jarchi, Mercerus, Piscator, Michaelis.