Job 4:19
Read Job 4:19 Using Other Translations
What does Job 4:19 mean?
How much less [on] them that dwell in houses of
clay
Meaning men, but not as dwelling in houses, in a proper sense,
made of clay dried by the sun, as were common in the eastern
countries; nor in mean cottages, as distinguished from cedar, and
ceiled houses, in which great personages dwelt, for this respects
men in common; nor as being in the houses of the grave, as the
Targum, Jarchi, and others, which are no other than dust, dirt,
and clay; for this regards not the dead, but the living; but the
bodies of men are meant; in which their souls dwell; which shows
the superior excellency of the soul to the body, and its
independency of it, being capable of existing without it, as it
does in the separate state before the resurrection; so bodies are
called tabernacles, and earthen vessels, and earthly houses, (
2 Peter
1:13 2 Peter 1:14
) ( 2
Corinthians 4:7 ) ( 5:1 ) ;
and bodies of clay, ( Job 13:12 ) ; so the body
is by Epictetus F3 called clay elegantly wrought; and
another Heathen writer
F4 calls it clay steeped in, or macerated and mixed with blood: being of clay denotes the original of bodies, the dust of the earth; and the frailty of them, like brittle clay, and the pollution of them, all the members thereof being defiled with sin, and so called vile bodies, and will remain such till changed by Christ, ( Philippians 3:21 ) ; now the argument stands thus, if God put no trust in angels, then much less in poor, frail, mortal, sinful men; he has no dependence on their services, whose weakness, unprofitableness, and unfaithfulness, he well knows; he puts no trust in their purposes, and resolutions, and vows, which often come to nothing; nor does he trust his own people with their salvation and justification, or put these things upon the foot of their works, but trusts them and the salvation and justification of them with his Son, and puts them upon the foot of his own grace and mercy: and if he charges the holy angels with folly, then much more (for so it may be also rendered) will he charge mortal sinful men with it, who are born like the wild ass's colt, and are foolish as well as disobedient, even his chosen ones, especially before conversion; or thus if so stands the case of angels, then much less can man be just before him, and pure in his sight: the weakness, frailty, and pollution of the bodies of men, are further enlarged on in some following clauses:
whose
foundation [is] in the dust;
meaning not the lower parts of the body, as the feet, which
support and bear it up; rather the soul, which is the basis of
it, referring to its corruption and depravity by sin; though it
seems chiefly to respect the original of the body, which is the
dust of the earth, of which it consists, and to which it will
return again, this being but a poor foundation to stand upon, (
Genesis 2:7 )
( 3:17 )
( Ecclesiastes 12:7 ) ;
for the sense is, whose foundation is dust, mere dust, the
particle (b) being
redundant, or rather an Arabism:
[which] are
crushed before the moth?
that is, which bodies of men, or houses of clay founded in the
dust; or, "they crush them"; or "which" or "whom [they] crush"
F5; either God, Father, Son, and
Spirit, as some; or the angels, as others; or distresses,
calamities, and afflictions, which sense seems best, by which
they are crushed "before the moth" or "worm" F6; that
is, before they die, and come to be the repast of worms, (
Job 19:26 ) ; or
before a moth is destroyed, as soon, or sooner F7, than
it is; so a man may be crushed to death, or his life taken from
him, as soon as a moth's; either by the immediate hand of God, as
Ananias and Sapphira, ( Acts 5:5 Acts 5:10 ) ; or by the
sword of man, as Amasa by Joab, ( 2 Samuel
20:10 ) ; or rather, "like a moth" F8, as
easily and as quickly as a moth is crushed between a man's
fingers, or by his foot: some, as Saadiah Gaon, and others,
render it, "before Arcturus" {i}, a constellation in the heavens,
( Job 9:9 ) ; and
take the phrase to be the same as that, "before the sun"; (
Psalms
72:17 ) ; and to denote the perpetuity and duration of their
being crushed, which would be as long as the sun or Arcturus
continued, that is, for ever; but either of the above senses is
best, especially the last of them.
F3 Arrian. Epictet. l. 1. c. 1.
F4 Theodor. Gadareus, apud Sueton. Vit.
Tiber. c. 57.
F5 (Mwakdy) "conterent eos", Montanus, Mercerus,
Michaelis, Schultens; "sub trinitas personarum", Schmidt;
"angeli", Mercerus; so Sephorno and R. Simeon Bar Tzemach;
"calamitates", Vatablus; so some in Bar Tzemach.
F6 (ve
ynpl) "conam verme", Coceius; so the Targum and Bar
Tzemach.
F7 "Antequam tinea", Junius & Tremellius;
"citius quam tinea", Piscator.
F8 (shtov
tropon) , Sept. "instar tineae", Noldius, Schmidt; so Aben
Ezra and Broughton.
F9 "Donec fuerit Arcturus", Pagninus,
Vatablus; so some in Aben Ezra, Ben Melech.
