Job 4:19

“How much less [on] them that dwell in houses of clay, etc.] 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 mean cottages, as distinguished from cedar, and ceiled houses, in which great personages dwelt, for this respects men in common; nor as being in the houses of the grave, as the Targum, Jarchi, and others, which are no other than dust, dirt, and clay; for this regards not the dead, but the living; but the bodies of men are meant; in which their souls dwell; which shows the superior excellency of the soul to the body, and its independency of it, being capable of existing without it, as it does…”

“houses of clay-- (Co2 5:1). Houses made of sun-dried clay bricks are common in the East; they are easily washed away (Mat 7:27). Man's foundation is this dust (Gen 3:19). before the moth--rather, "as before the moth," which devours a garment (Job 13:28; Psa 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.”

“How much less - (אף 'aph). This particle has the general sense of addition, accession, especially of something more important;” yea more, besides, even.” Gesenius. The meaning here is, “how much more true is this of man!” He puts no confidence in his angels; he charges them with frailty; how much more strikingly true must this be of man! It is not merely, as our common translation would seem to imply, that he put much less confidence in man than in angels; it is, that all he had said must be more strikingly true of man, who dwelt in so frail and humble a habitation. In them that dwell in houses of clay - In man. The phrase “houses of clay” refers to the body made of dust. The sense is, that…”

“How, &c. - The sense is, what strange presumption then is it for a foolish and mortal man, to make himself more just than God. In them - Who though they have immortal spirits, yet those spirits dwell in mortal bodies, which are great clogs, and incumbrances, and snares to them. These are called houses, (because they are the receptacles of the soul, and the places of its settled abode) and houses of clay, because they were made of clay, or earth, and 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 - Whose very foundation, no less than the rest of the building,…”

“dwell: Job 10:9, Job 13:12, Job 33:6; Gen 2:7, Gen 3:19, Gen 18:27; Ecc 12:7; Co2 4:7, Co2 5:1 crushed: Job 13:28, Job 14:2; Psa 39:11, Psa 90:5-7, Psa 103:15, Psa 103:16, Psa 146:4; Pe1 1:24 Job 4:20”