Worthy.Bible » ASV » Job » Chapter 4 » Verse 20

Job 4:20 American Standard (ASV)

20 Betwixt morning and evening they are destroyed: They perish for ever without any regarding it.

Cross Reference

Job 20:7 ASV

Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: They that have seen him shall say, Where is he?

2 Chronicles 15:6 ASV

And they were broken in pieces, nation against nation, and city against city; for God did vex them with all adversity.

2 Chronicles 21:20 ASV

Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years: and he departed without being desired; and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.

Job 14:2 ASV

He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: He fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

Job 14:14 ASV

If a man die, shall he live `again'? All the days of my warfare would I wait, Till my release should come.

Job 14:20 ASV

Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth; Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.

Job 16:22 ASV

For when a few years are come, I shall go the way whence I shall not return.

Job 18:17 ASV

His remembrance shall perish from the earth, And he shall have no name in the street.

Psalms 37:36 ASV

But one passed by, and, lo, he was not: Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.

Psalms 39:13 ASV

Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, Before I go hence, and be no more. Psalm 40 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

Psalms 90:5-6 ASV

Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: In the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; In the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

Psalms 92:7 ASV

When the wicked spring as the grass, And when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; It is that they shall be destroyed for ever.

Proverbs 10:7 ASV

The memory of the righteous is blessed; But the name of the wicked shall rot.

Isaiah 38:12-13 ASV

My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me as a shepherd's tent: I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life; he will cut me off from the loom: From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me. I quieted `myself' until morning; as a lion, so he breaketh all my bones: From day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.

Commentary on Job 4 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible


CHAPTER 4

Job 4:1-21. First Speech of Eliphaz.

1. Eliphaz—the mildest of Job's three accusers. The greatness of Job's calamities, his complaints against God, and the opinion that calamities are proofs of guilt, led the three to doubt Job's integrity.

2. If we assay to commune—Rather, two questions, "May we attempt a word with thee? Wilt thou be grieved at it?" Even pious friends often count that only a touch which we feel as a wound.

3. weak hands—Isa 35:3; 2Sa 4:1.

5. thou art troubled—rather, "unhinged," hast lost thy self-command (1Th 3:3).

6. Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, &c.—Does thy fear, thy confidence, come to nothing? Does it come only to this, that thou faintest now? Rather, by transposition, "Is not thy fear (of God) thy hope? and the uprightness of thy ways thy confidence? If so, bethink thee, who ever perished being innocent?" [Umbreit]. But Lu 13:2, 3 shows that, though there is a retributive divine government even in this life, yet we cannot judge by the mere outward appearance. "One event is outwardly to the righteous and to the wicked" (Ec 9:2); but yet we must take it on trust, that God deals righteously even now (Ps 37:25; Isa 33:16). Judge not by a part, but by the whole of a godly man's life, and by his end, even here (Jas 5:11). The one and the same outward event is altogether a different thing in its inward bearings on the godly and on the ungodly even here. Even prosperity, much more calamity, is a punishment to the wicked (Pr 1:32). Trials are chastisements for their good (to the righteous) (Ps 119:67, 71, 75). See Preface on the Design of this book (see Introduction).

8. they that plough iniquity … reap the same—(Pr 22:8; Ho 8:7; 10:13; Ga 6:7, 8).

9. breath of his nostrils—God's anger; a figure from the fiery winds of the East (Job 1:16; Isa 5:25; Ps 18:8, 15).

10, 11. lion—that is, wicked men, upon whom Eliphaz wished to show that calamities come in spite of their various resources, just as destruction comes on the lion in spite of his strength (Ps 58:6; 2Ti 4:17). Five different Hebrew terms here occur for "lion." The raging of the lion (the tearer), and the roaring of the bellowing lion and the teeth of the young lions, not whelps, but grown up enough to hunt for prey. The strong lion, the whelps of the lioness (not the stout lion, as in English Version) [Barnes and Umbreit]. The various phases of wickedness are expressed by this variety of terms: obliquely, Job, his wife, and children, may be hinted at by the lion, lioness, and whelps. The one verb, "are broken," does not suit both subjects; therefore, supply "the roaring of the bellowing lion is silenced." The strong lion dies of want at last, and the whelps, torn from the mother, are scattered, and the race becomes extinct.

12. a thing—Hebrew, a "word." Eliphaz confirms his view by a divine declaration which was secretly and unexpectedly imparted to him.

a little—literally, "a whisper"; implying the still silence around, and that more was conveyed than articulate words could utter (Job 26:14; 2Co 12:4).

13. In thoughts from the visions of the night—[So Winer]. While revolving night visions previously made to him (Da 2:29). Rather, "In my manifold (Hebrew, divided) thoughts, before the visions of the night commenced"; therefore not a delusive dream (Ps 4:4) [Umbreit].

deep sleep—(Ge 2:21; 15:12).

16. It stood still—At first the apparition glides before Eliphaz, then stands still, but with that shadowy indistinctness of form which creates such an impression of awe; a gentle murmur: not (English Version): there was silence; for in 1Ki 19:12, the voice, as opposed to the previous storm, denotes a gentle, still murmur.

17. mortal man … a man—Two Hebrew words for "man" are used; the first implying his feebleness; the second his strength. Whether feeble or strong, man is not righteous before God.

more just than God … more pure than his maker—But this would be self-evident without an oracle.

18. folly—Imperfection is to be attributed to the angels, in comparison with Him. The holiness of some of them had given way (2Pe 2:4), and at best is but the holiness of a creature. Folly is the want of moral consideration [Umbreit].

19. houses of clay—(2Co 5:1). Houses made of sun-dried clay bricks are common in the East; they are easily washed away (Mt 7:27). Man's foundation is this dust (Ge 3:19).

before the moth—rather, "as before the moth," which devours a garment (Job 13:28; Ps 39:11; Isa 50:9). Man, who cannot, in a physical point of view, stand before the very moth, surely cannot, in a moral, stand before God.

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).

21. their excellency—(Ps 39:11; 146:4; 1Co 13:8). But Umbreit, by an Oriental image from a bow, useless because unstrung: "Their nerve, or string would be torn away." Michaelis, better in accordance with Job 4:19, makes the allusion be to the cords of a tabernacle taken down (Isa 33:20).

they die, even without wisdom—rather, "They would perish, yet not according to wisdom," but according to arbitrary choice, if God were not infinitely wise and holy. The design of the spirit is to show that the continued existence of weak man proves the inconceivable wisdom and holiness of God, which alone save man from ruin [Umbreit]. Bengel shows from Scripture that God's holiness (Hebrew, kadosh) comprehends all His excellencies and attributes. De Wette loses the scope, in explaining it, of the shortness of man's life, contrasted with the angels "before they have attained to wisdom."