Thou shalt come to [thy] grave in a full age
Or, "go into thy grave" F15, which is represented as a house to
enter into and dwell in; and so the wise man calls it man's long
home, and Job his house, and which is appointed for all living, (
Ecclesiastes 12:5 ) (
Job 17:13 ) (
30:23 ) ; for
all men must die, and so come to the grave, good men as well as
bad, the righteous and the wicked: this is not to be understood
literally, for the dead cannot go or come to their graves, but
are carried thither, as Stephen was, and all are; but it denotes
their willingness to die, who choose to be absent from the body,
that they may be present with the Lord, and are desirous to
depart this world, and be with him, as the Apostle Paul was; and
therefore cheerfully give up the ghost, and resign their souls
into the hands of Christ, desiring him to receive them; and
rejoice when they observe the grave is near, and ready for them;
while others have their souls demanded and required of them, and
are forced to death and the grave against their wills, and are
driven away in their wickedness: now this, with respect to good
men, is said to be "in a full age", not "in abundance", as the
Vulgate Latin version, in an abundance or fulness of wealth and
honour, and with great pomp and splendour, which is not the case
of all good men, but of very few; nor in the full time which God
has determined and appointed men should live, which may be called
"the fulness of time"; for in this every man comes to the grave,
good and bad, young and old; no man dies before or lives beyond
it, see ( Job 14:5 )
but in the full age of men or the common term of man's life; the
highest which he usually attains unto, which is threescore years
and ten, and at most fourscore, ( Psalms 90:10
) ; and such who die before this are said to die before their
time, the usual term of life; who die before the midst of this,
are said not to live out half their days, ( Ecclesiastes
7:17 ) ( Psalms 55:23
) ; but he that arrives to this dies in a good old age, and has
filled up his days, which men, at most, ordinarily live: Mr.
Broughton renders it, "in lusty old age", enjoying great health,
strength, and vigour; and so Nachmanides takes the word to be
compounded of (k) , "as",
and (xl) , "moist",
lively, strong, and lusty; as if the sense was, that Job should
die indeed in old age, but, when old, be as hearty as a young man
in his full strength, and whose bones are moistened with marrow;
as was the case of Moses, whose eyes were not dim, nor his
natural force or radical moisture abated, ( Deuteronomy
34:7 ) ; but the word denotes extreme decrepit old age
F16, coming from the root in the Arabic
language, which signifies to be of an austere, rugged, wrinkled,
contracted countenance F17, which is usually the case of old
men: now this is to be understood, not as if every good than
arrives to such an age, or that none but good men do; for certain
it is, that some good persons, as Abijah, die in their youth, and
many wicked men live to a great age, see ( Ecclesiastes
7:15 ) ; but Eliphaz here speaks suitably to the legal
dispensation under which he was, in which temporal blessings were
promised to good men, as shadows of spiritual things, and this of
long life was a principal one, see ( Psalms 91:16
) ( Ephesians
6:2 Ephesians
6:3 ) ; this is illustrated by the following simile:
like as a shock of corn cometh in in his
season;
there is a very great resemblance between ripe corn and old age;
corn, when it is in its full ear, and ripe, its ears will hang
down; the stalks, being dry and withered, are weak, and not able
to bear the weight of them; so old men stoop, their knees bend,
the strong men bow themselves, being unable to bear the weight of
the body; fields of corn, ripe for the harvest, look white, and
so the hairs of a man's head in old age; the almond tree
flourishes, which, when in full bloom, is a lively emblem of the
hoary head: and there is a great likeness between ripe corn, and
shocks and sheaves of it, and a good old man; a good man is
comparable to a corn of wheat that falls into the ground, to
which Christ compares himself, ( John 12:24 ) ; and to
wheat the compares his saints, ( Matthew
13:30 ) ; for their choiceness, excellency, purity, and
solidity; and these, like a corn of wheat, grow up gradually in
grace, in spiritual light, knowledge, faith, and experience, and
at length come to maturity; the good work is performed and
perfected in them, and they come to the measure of the stature of
the fulness of Christ; and then they are cut down with the scythe
or sickle of death, which is the proper time, like corn "in his
season"; which, if cut before it is ripe, would not be fit for
use, and, if it stood longer, would shed and come to nothing: and
then, as corn, when cut down and reaped, is put up in shocks and
sheaves, which are lifted up from the earth, and made to
"ascend", as the word F18 signifies, and are laid in carts
and wagons, and carried home with expressions of joy, (hence we
read of the joy of harvest,) and are laid up in the barn or
granary; so the saints are carried by angels, the reapers, into
Abraham's bosom, as Lazarus was, into heaven, and as all the
elect will be gathered by the angels at the harvest, the end of
the world; attended with their shouts and acclamations, and with
expressions of joy from Gospel ministers, who now go forth
bearing the precious seed of the word, and sow it in tears, but
then shall return with joy, bringing their sheaves with them, see
( Matthew
13:30 Matthew
13:39 ) ( 24:31 ) (
Psalms
126:5 Psalms 126:6
) ( 1
Thessalonians 2:19 1
Thessalonians 2:20 ) .