Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Job 5:26
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Thou shalt come to [thy] grave in a full age, etc.] Or, “go into thy grave” f228, which is represented as a house to enter into and dwell in; and so the wise man calls it man’s long home, and Job his house, and which is appointed for all living, (<211205>Ecclesiastes 12:5 <181713>Job 17:13 30:23); for all men must die, and so come to the grave, good men as well as bad, the righteous and the wicked: this is not to be understood literally, for the dead cannot go or come to their graves, but are carried thither, as Stephen was, and all are; but it denotes their willingness to die, who choose to be absent from the body, that they may be present with the Lord, and are desirous to depart this world, and be with him, as the Apostle Paul was; and therefore cheerfully give up the ghost, and resign their souls into the hands of Christ, desiring him to receive them; and rejoice when they observe the grave is near, and ready for them; while others have their souls demanded and required of them, and are forced to death and the grave against their wills, and are driven away in their wickedness: now this, with respect to good men, is said to be “in a full age”, not “in abundance”, as the Vulgate Latin version, in an abundance or fulness of wealth and honour, and with great pomp and splendour, which is not the case of all good men, but of very few; nor in the full time which God has determined and appointed men should live, which may be called “the fulness of time”; for in this every man comes to the grave, good and bad, young and old; no man dies before or lives beyond it, (see <181405>Job 14:5) but in the full age of men or the common term of man’s life; the highest which he usually attains unto, which is threescore years and ten, and at most fourscore, (<199010>Psalm 90:10); and such who die before this are said to die before their time, the usual term of life; who die before the midst of this, are said not to live out half their days, (<210717>Ecclesiastes 7:17 <195523>Psalm 55:23); but he that arrives to this dies in a good old age, and has filled up his days, which men, at most, ordinarily live: Mr. Broughton renders it, “in lusty old age”, enjoying great health, strength, and vigour; and so Nachmanides takes the word to be compounded of k, “as”, and jl, “moist”, lively, strong, and lusty; as if the sense was, that Job should die indeed in old age, but, when old, be as hearty as a young man in his full strength, and whose bones are moistened with marrow; as was the case of Moses, whose eyes were not dim, nor his natural force or radical moisture abated, (<053407>Deuteronomy 34:7); but the word denotes extreme decrepit old age f229, coming from the root in the Arabic language, which signifies to be of an austere, rugged, wrinkled, contracted countenance f230, which is usually the case of old men: now this is to be understood, not as if every good than arrives to such an age, or that none but good men do; for certain it is, that some good persons, as Abijah, die in their youth, and many wicked men live to a great age, (see <210715> Ecclesiastes 7:15); but Eliphaz here speaks suitably to the legal dispensation under which he was, in which temporal blessings were promised to good men, as shadows of spiritual things, and this of long life was a principal one, (see <199116>Psalm 91:16 <490602>Ephesians 6:2,3); this is illustrated by the following simile: like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season; there is a very great resemblance between ripe…
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