Job 4:20

4:12-21 Eliphaz relates a vision. When we are communing with our own hearts, and are still, Ps 4:4, then is a time for the Holy Spirit to commune with us. This vision put him into very great fear. Ever since man sinned, it has been terrible to him to receive communications from Heaven, conscious that he can expect no good tidings thence. Sinful man! shall he pretend to be more just, more pure, than God, who being his Maker, is his Lord and Owner? How dreadful, then, the pride and presumption of man! How great the patience of God! Look upon man in his life. The very foundation of that cottage of clay in which man dwells, is in the dust, and it will sink with its own weight. We stand but upon the dust. Some have a higher heap of dust to stand upon than others but still it is the earth that stays us up, and will shortly swallow us up. Man is soon crushed; or if some lingering distemper, which consumes like a moth, be sent to destroy him, he cannot resist it. Shall such a creature pretend to blame the appointments of God? Look upon man in his death. Life is short, and in a little time men are cut off. Beauty, strength, learning, not only cannot secure them from death, but these things die with them; nor shall their pomp, their wealth, or power, continue after them. Shall a weak, sinful, dying creature, pretend to be more just than God, and more pure than his Maker? No: instead of quarrelling with his afflictions, let him wonder that he is out of hell.

Can a man be cleansed without his Maker? Will God justify sinful mortals, and clear them from guilt? or will he do so without their having an interest in the righteousness and gracious help of their promised Redeemer, when angels, once ministering spirits before his throne, receive the just recompence of their sins? Notwithstanding the seeming impunity of men for a short time, though living without God in the world, their doom is as certain as that of the fallen angels, and is continually overtaking them. Yet careless sinners note it so little, that they expect not the change, nor are wise to consider their latter end.

(20) From morning to evening. —The process is continual and unceasing, and when we consider the ravages of time on history, we may well say, as in Job 4:20 , that “none regardeth it.” The next verse, however, may seem to imply that they themselves are unmindful of their decay, it is so insidious and so complete.

Job 4:20 . They are destroyed — Bruised, or broken, as the same word, יכתו , juccattu, is rendered, Micah 1:7 , where we read, The graven images shall be broken to pieces; from morning to evening — That is, either speedily, between the morning and evening, like the grass, Psalm 90:5-6 . They flourish in the morning, and in the evening are cut down: or rather, all the day long; there is not a moment wherein man is not sinking toward death and corruption. If these words were considered as being connected with the latter clause of the preceding verse, as Dr. Grey thinks they ought to be, the sense would be, they are crushed and destroyed all the day long, as moths are, which, being an insect hurtful and injurious, every one is ready to destroy. They perish for ever — In reference to the present worldly life, which when once lost is never recovered; without any regarding it — Or laying it to heart, say most commentators. But the literal interpretation of the Hebrew, מבלי משׂים , mibbeli meesim, Chappelow thinks, is preferable, namely, absque imponente, without any one’s adding to their misery; or, according to Junius and Tremellius, nemine disponente, without any one’s ordering or appointing it. That is, they are continually perishing and going to destruction, of their own accord, through the mere frailty of their nature, even if no external violence be offered to them.

Our translation, however, conveys an important and instructive truth, namely, that few or none that survive, lay to heart, as they ought to do, the death of those that are taken away. For it is so common a thing for all men, though ever so high and great, to perish in this manner, that no man regards it, but all pass it by, as a general accident not worthy of observation.

20 . from morning to evening ] i. e. from a morning to an evening, in the course of a single day, cf. Isaiah 38:12 . They are short-lived as ephemerids. without any regarding ] i. e. without any one noticing it; so insignificant and of no account are they, that they pass away unobserved, like ephemeral insects. The words might mean, without any of them laying to heart ; they are thoughtless in their sinful levity, an idea parallel to “without wisdom” in the next verse. Job 4:19 described how easily men are destroyed, this verse describes how soon . All is meant to widen the chasm between men and God, and by giving Job right thoughts of God, and of himself a man, to bring back his mind to a becoming attitude towards Heaven.

Verse 20. - They are destroyed from morning to evening . Human bodies undergo a continuous destruction. From the moment that we are born we begin to die. Decay of powers is coeval with their first exercise. Our insidious foe, Death, marks us as his own from the very first breath that we draw. Our bodies are machines wound up to go for a certain time. The moment that we begin to use them we begin to wear them out. They perish for ever . The final result is that Our" houses of clay "perish, crumble to dust, disappear, and come to nothing. They "perish for ever," says Eliphaz, repeating what he believed the spirit of ver. 15 to have said to him; but it is not clear that he understood more by this than that they perish and disappear for ever, so far as this life and this world are concerned . Without any regarding it . No one is surprised or thinks it hard. It is the lot of man, and every one's mind is prepared for it. Job 4:20

20. from morning to evening—unceasingly; or, better, between the morning and evening of one short day (so Ex 18:14; Isa 38:12). They are destroyed—better, "they would be destroyed," if God withdrew His loving protection. Therefore man must not think to be holy before God, but to draw holiness and all things else from God (Job 4:17).

From morning to evening; either, 1. Speedily, between morning and evening, like the grass; they flourish in the morning, and in the evening are cut off, Psalm 90:5,6 . Or rather, 2. All the day long , as the phrase is, 2 Corinthians 11:25 . There is not a moment wherein man is not sinking and drawing on towards death and corruption. For ever; as to human appearance and the course of nature, as many such like passages are to be understood in this book; or in reference to this present. and worldly life, which when once lost is never recovered, Job 16:22 Psalm 39:13 . Without any regarding it, Heb. without putting the heart to it ; the word heart being understood there, as also Job 23:6 34:23 Isaiah 41:20 , as may appear by comparing 1 Samuel 9:20 2 Samuel 18:3 Isaiah 41:22 57:1 , where the same phrase is used, and the word heart expressed. The meaning is either, 1. Yet few or no men that survive them lay it to heart as they should do. Or, 2. They perish beside the expectation of all men, when both themselves and others thought their mountain was so strong that it could not be removed. Or rather, 3. This is so common a thing for all men, though never so high and great, to perish in this manner, that no man heeds it, but passeth it by as a general accident not worthy of observation. Otherwise, no man procuring or furthering it, Heb. without any man’s putting the hand to it , i.e. they perish of themselves, without any violent hand.

They are destroyed from morning to evening - Margin, "beaten in pieces." This is nearer to the Hebrew. The phrase "from morning to evening" means between the morning and the evening; that is, they live scarcely a single day; see the notes at Isaiah 38:12 . The idea is, not the continuance of the work of destruction from morning to evening; but that man's life is excecdingly short, so short that he scarce seems to live from morning to night. What a beautiful expression, and how true! How little qualified is such a being to sit in judgment on the doings of the Most High! They perish forever - Without being restored to life. They pass away, and nothing is ever seen of them again! Without any regarding it - Without its being noticed. How strikingly true is this! What a narrow circle is affected by the death of a man, and how soon does even that circle cease to be affected! A few relatives and friends feel it and weep over the loss; but the mass of men are unconcerned. It is like taking a grain of sand from the sea-shore, or a drop of water from the ocean. There is indeed one less, but the place is soon supplied, and the ocean rolls on its tumultuous billows as though none had been taken away. So with human life. The affairs of people will roll on; the world will be as busy, and active, and thoughtless as though we had not been; and soon, O how painfully soon to human pride, will our names be forgotten! The circle of friends will cease to weep, and then cease to remember us.

The last memorial that we lived, will be gone. The house that we built, the bed on which we slept, the counting-room that we occupied, the monuments that we raised, the books that we made, the stone that we directed to be placed over our graves, will all be gone; and the last memento that we ever lived, will have faded away! How vain is man! How vain is pride! How foolish is ambition! How important the announcement that there is another world, where we may live on forever!