Job 4:19

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

How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth? Houses of clay - "earthly house of this tabernacle" (2 Corinthians 5:1).

How much less, understand, doth he put trust in them, &c.! Or, How much more, understand, doth he charge folly on them, &c.! Either of these supplements are natural and easy, being fetched out of the former verse, and necessary to make the sense complete. The sense is, What strange presumption then is it, for a foolish and mortal man to pretend to a higher privilege than the angels do, to make himself more just than God, or to exalt himself above or against God, as thou dost! On them, i.e. on men, as it follows, who, though they have immortal spirits, yet those spirits dwell in mortal bodies, which are great debasements, and clogs, and encumbrances, and snares to them; and which are here called houses, ( because they are the receptacles of the soul, and the places of its settled and continual abode,) and houses of clay, and earthly houses, ; partly because they were made of clay, or earth, ; and partly to note their great frailty and mutability; whereas the angels are free spirits, unconfined to such carcasses, and dwell in celestial, and glorious, and everlasting mansions. Whose foundation is in the dust; whose very foundation, no less than the rest of the building, is in the dust; who as they dwell in dust and clay, so they had their foundation or original from it, and they must return to it, ; and, as to their bodies, lie down and sleep in it, , as in his long home, , and the only continuing city which he hath in this world. Which are crushed, Heb. they crush them, i.e. they are or will be crushed; the active verb used impersonally, as it Isaiah 24:20 . Before the moth, i.e. sooner than a moth is crushed, which is easily done by a gentle touch of the finger. An hyperbolical expression. So the Hebrew word liphne, commonly signifying place, doth here note time, as it is used 29:26 36:31. Or, at the face, or appearance, of a moth. No creature is so weak and contemptible but one time or other it may have the body of man in its power, as the worms, the moths’ cousin-germans, have in the grave. But he instanceth in a moth rather than a worm, because it is the weaker of the two, and because it better agrees with the similitude of a house, in which moths commonly are more frequent, and powerful, and mischievous than worms. How then canst thou think, O Job, to contend with thy Maker, that must become a prey to such small and impotent creatures?

Job 4:19 How much less [in] them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation [is] in the dust, [which] are crushed before the moth?Ver. 19. How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay] Or how much more (in reference to the latter part of the preceding verse) may God charge men with folly and depravity! And how much more ought he to acknowledge that he cannot subsist nor stand before God’ s judgment, but only by his gracious pardon and absolution! That dwell in houses of clay] Periphrasis est hominum, saith Mercer; this is a description of men, as opposed to angels, those inhabitants of heaven, called therefore the angels of heaven, Matthew 24:36 Galatians 1:8, the courtiers of that heavenly Jerusalem, Hebrews 12:22, in and with which, it may seem, they were created; as Christ’ s soul was in and with his body in the virgin’ s womb, the same moment. Hence they are also said to be in heaven, when as men and other things here below are said to be on earth, Matthew 6:10, on the surface only, as ready to be shaken off, and as having here no continuing city, Hebrews 13:14, no mansions till they come to heaven, John 14:2, no settled abode: some huts we have here, rather than houses; clay cottages, earthly tabernacles, τοσκηνος, as Paul after Plato calleth men’ s bodies, 2 Corinthians 5:1. And so the most interpreters understand these words of Eliphaz concerning the body of man (rather than of his house he dwells in here, made up of clay and dust a little refined and sublimated by art or nature), which is nothing else but a clod of clay neatly made up. What is man, saith Greg. Nazianzen out of Gen 2:7, but Nουςκαιχους, soul and soil, breath and body, a puff of wind the one, a pile of dust the other? no solidity in either, ςτψΰτψκονις, cinis, ashes Genesis 3:19; Genesis 18:21. Pulvis et umbra sumus, Dust and shadows we are, saith the poet, Her. Od. iv. 7, 16; and Kεραμοςοανθρωπος, saith the Greek proverb, Man is but an earthen pot. The first man, Adam, was of the earth earthy, 1 Corinthians 15:47. And no better are the best, quos ex meliore forsan lute finxit Titan, who are made of the finest common mould; but as the finer the metal, the purer the matter of any glass or earthen vessel, the more subject it is to break, so are they to die: for what reason? Whose foundation is in the dust] The house is but weak, and yet the foundation weaker, terra friabilis, flying, light, unstable, unmoveable, dust that is soon wherried and whirled about with every puff of wind. Hence the apostle calleth man’ s body not a house only (in respect of, 1. The comely and orderly workmanship thereof; 2. The soul which inhabiteth it), but a tabernacle, which hath no foundation, and is transportative, 2 Corinthians 5:1, opposing to it building, which is firm and stable.

(19) Houses of clay.—This may perhaps contain an allusion to Genesis 11:3. Are crushed before the moth?—That is to say, are so frail that even the moth destroys them.

Verse 19. How much less] Rather, with the VULGATE, How much more? If angels may be unstable, how can man arrogate stability to himself who dwells in an earthly tabernacle, and who must shortly return to dust? Crushed before the moth? The slightest accident oftentimes destroys. "A fly, a grape-stone, or a hair can kill." Great men have fallen by all these. This is the general idea in the text, and it is useless to sift for meanings.

19. houses of clay] The verse refers to men, and their “houses of clay” are their bodies, which are of the dust, Genesis 2:7; Genesis 3:19; 2 Corinthians 5:1. whose foundation] Men’s bodies being compared to houses are now spoken of as, like houses, having a foundation. They are not only of earth, they are founded on earth—of the earth earthy. They are built of earth, derived from earth, limited to earth. The accumulation of terms enhances the material nature of man in opposition to the spirits on high. Yet even these spirits are limited, and, as creatures, not absolute in their holiness, and to God’s eye even erring. No words could more strongly express God’s unapproachable holiness. before the moth] The words may mean: sooner, easier, than the moth is crushed. They can hardly mean in the connexion, by the moth; although the moth is usually elsewhere spoken of as the destroyer, ch. Job 13:28; Isaiah 50:9; Isaiah 51:8, and not as the object of destruction. The phrase before might have a sense similar to what it has in ch. Job 3:24, like the moth; so the Sept.

How much less - (אף 'aph). This particle has the general sense of addition, accession, especially of something more important;” yea more, besides, even.” Gesenius.

19. Much less in them — àַ ?ó, (aph,) much more them. The strong logical argument is to be remarked. The same kind of argument is employed in Job 15:16; Job 25:5-6.