Job 14:12

So man lieth down,.... Or "and", or "but man lieth down" (b); in the grave when he dies, as on a bed, and takes his rest from all his labours, toil and troubles, and lies asleep, and continues so

So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. Heavens be no more.

Man lieth down, to wit, in his bed, the grave, or to sleep the sleep of death, as this phrase is used, . Riseth not, to wit, to tills life; for he speaks not here of the life to come, nor of the resurrection of the belly after death by the Divine power; of his belief whereof he giveth sufficient evidences in divers places. Till the heavens be no more, i.e. either, 1. Never; because the heavens, though they shall be changed in their qualities, yet shall never cease to be, as to the substance of them. And therefore everlasting and unchangeable things are expressed by the duration of the heavens; of which see ,7,17 89:29,36,37 Matthew 5:18 24:35. Or, 2. Not until the time of the general resurrection, and the restitution of things, when these visible heavens shall pass away, and be no more, at least in the same form and manner as now they are; of which see ,10 Revelation 21:1.

Job 14:12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens [be] no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.Ver. 12. So man lieth down] sc. In the dust of death, or in the bed of the grave; his dormitory, till the last day. Ut somnus morris, sic lectus imago sepulchri. And riseth not] sc. To live again among men. So, Psalms 78:39, man is compared to a wind, which, when it is past, returneth not again. If it be objected, that we read of three in the Old Testament, and five in the New, raised from death to life; besides those many that arose and came out of the graves after Christ’ s resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many, Matthew 27:52-53; it is answered, 1. These few raised by God’ s extraordinary power do not infringe the truth of what the Scripture here and elsewhere affirmeth of all mankind according to the ordinary course of nature. 2. Even those men also afterwards died again, and vanished, no more to return or appear again in this world. Till the heavens be no more] i.e. Never (say some interpreters), to wit, vi sua, by his own strength, and to a better condition in the land of the living; so the word "until" is used, 2 Samuel 6:13 Matthew 5:26; Matthew 1:25, ut pie credimus. How sound and clear Job was in the point of the resurrection we shall see, Job 19:26, and because he falls upon it in the words next following here, some understand these words thus: They shall not rise till the general resurrections, when these heavens shall be changed and renewed, Psalms 102:25-26 Isaiah 65:17 2 Peter 3:7; 2 Peter 3:10-11 Revelation 21:1. They shall not awake] Out of the sleep of death; nor be raised] viz. By the sound of the last trump, till the last day. But raised they shall be, and sleep no more, viz. when the heavens shall be no more. And till that time the bodies of the saints are laid in the grave, as in a bed of down, or of spices, to mellow and ripen. This is matter of joy and triumph, Isaiah 26:19 Daniel 12:2, when they were to lose all: so Hebrews 11:35. The wicked also sleep in the grave, Daniel 12:2, but shall awake to everlasting shame and contempt, ib.; their sick sleep shall have a woeful waking, for they shall be raised by virtue of Christ’ s judiciary power, and by the curse of the law, to look upon him whom they have pierced, and to hear from him that dreadful Discedite, "Depart, ye cursed," &c.

Verse 12. So man lieth down] He falls asleep in his bed of earth. And riseth not] Men shall not, like cut down trees and plants, reproduce their like; nor shall they arise till the heavens are no more, till the earth and all its works are burnt up, and the general resurrection of human beings shall take place. Surely it would be difficult to twist this passage to the denial of the resurrection of the body. Neither can these expressions be fairly understood as implying Job's belief in the materiality of the soul, and that the whole man sleeps from the day of his death to the morning of the resurrection. We have already seen that Job makes a distinction between the animal life and rational soul in man; and it is most certain that the doctrine of the materiality of the soul, and its sleep till the resurrection, has no place in the sacred records. There is a most beautiful passage to the same purpose, and with the same imagery, in Moschus's epitaph on the death of Bion: - Αι, αιταιμαλαχαιμενεπανκατακαπονολωνται, Ηταχλωρασελινα, τοτ' ευθαλεςουλονανηθον, Ὑστεροναυζωοντι, καιειςετοςαλλοφυοντι· Αμμεςδ', οἱμεγαλοι, καικαρτεροι, ησοφοιανδρες, Ὁπποτεπρωταθανωμες, ανακοοιενχθονικοιλα Εὑδομεςευμαλαμακρον, ατερμονα, νηγρετονὑπνον. Idyll. iii., ver. 100. Alas! alas! the mallows, when they die, Or garden herbs, and sweet Anethum's pride, Blooming in vigour, wake again to life, And flourish beauteous through another year: But we, the great, the mighty, and the wise, When once we die, unknown in earth's dark womb Sleep long and drear, the endless sleep of death. J. B. B. C. A more cold and comfortless philosophy was never invented. The next verse shows that Job did not entertain this view of the subject.

12. till the heavens be no more] i. e. never; cf. Psalms 72:7, Till there be no moon. The heavens are eternal, cf. Jeremiah 31:35-36; Psalms 89:29; Psalms 89:36-37.

So man lieth down, and riseth not - He lies down in the grave and does not rise again on the earth.

12. Riseth not — Among the most ancient and universal beliefs was that of the transmigration of souls. It was man’s natural recoil from annihilation.