Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 14:18
And surely the mountain falling cometh to naught, and the rock is removed out of his place.
18. And surely ] Rather, but; cf. ch. Job 13:3-4.
The “mountain falling” is the mountain from which great forces detach pieces as man is subjected to the shattering strokes of God. The second clause shews this to be the meaning.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
18 22. Under this severe treatment man must perish. For even the greatest and the firmest things in nature, and those most capable of resistance, are worn down by the influence of constant forces, and how much more man’s life under God’s continued severity.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And surely the mountain falling – Margin, Fadeth. The sense of this is, that the hope of man in regard to living again, must certainly fail – as a mountain falls and does not rise again; as the rock is removed, and is not replaced; or as the waters wear away the stones, and they disappear. The hope of dying man was not like the tree that would spring up again Job 14:7-9; it was like the falling mountain, the wasting waters Job 14:11, the rock that was removed. The reference in the phrase before us is, probably, to a mountain that settles down and disappears – as is sometimes the case in violent convulsions of nature. It does not rise again, but is gone to reappear no more. So Job says it was of man.
And the rock is removed – An earthquake shakes it, and removes it from its foundation, and it is not replaced.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 14:18-19
And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought.
The law of nature and of life
If the patriarch of Uz could listen to all the criticism of his commentators, his patience would be more severely tried than by his contemporaries.
1. Job intentionally uttered a solemn truth. He speaks of the changes to which human life is subjected–great and sudden revolutions and changes–and the changes that result from the slow and silent operation of trivial causes.
(1) Many things in life are fixed and stable as the mountains, but are nevertheless suddenly removed. The only abiding and permanent objects are spiritual.
(2) Many things in life receive their impress and derive their character from the operation of trivial causes. There is a power in the slow, uniform operation of little things. The present is the result of the past.
(3) Many things in life that are most precious, and singularly frail, are nevertheless swept away by some flood. Changes are constantly taking place before our eyes.
2. Job unconsciously stated a great fact. There are laws by which all changes and convulsions in nature are regulated. There is in nature a provision against the waste which appears to follow change. The things which grow out of the dust owe their beauty or fruitfulness to the soil, which is constantly being renewed. There is no soil so miraculously prolific as sorrow,–the seed sown there will bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Life seems to have its birth in death. There is one great change produced directly by Divine agency. It is indispensable that we should experience this.
3. Our days have a definite end. If life is so brief, make the most of it, use all its opportunities, seek to be prepared for death. (H. J. Bevis.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. The mountain falling cometh to naught] Every thing in nature is exposed to mutability and decay:-even mountains themselves may fall from their bases, and be dashed to pieces; or be suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake; and, by the same means, the strongest and most massive rocks may be removed.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As when a great mountain falls, either by an earthquake or inundation of waters, or from any other cause, it moulders away like a fading leaf, (as the Hebrew word signifies,) and never recovers its former height and stability; and as the rock, when by the violence of winds or earthquake, &c.
it is removed out of its place, and thrown down, is never readvanced; and as the waters by continual droppings, or violent and frequent assaults, wear away, or break the stones to pieces, so as they can never be made whole again; and as thou washest away, to wit, by a great and violent inundation which thou sendest, the things which grow out of the dust of the earth, to wit, herbs, and fruits, and plants, which once washed away are irrecoverably lost, and, or so, (as this particle is oft used, i.e. in like manner, to wit, irrecoverably,) thou destroyest the hope of man; i.e. so when man dies, all hope of living again in this world is utterly lost: and this seems to be the plain meaning of these two verses. And as before he declared the hopelessness of mans restoration from death to this animal life, by way of opposition to such things as did rise in a manner from death to life, Job 14:7, &c.; so now he declares it by way of similitude or resemblance to such things, as being once lost and gone are past all hopes of recovery.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. cometh to naughtliterally,”fadeth”; a poetical image from a leaf (Isa34:4). Here Job falls back into his gloomy bodings as to thegrave. Instead of “and surely,” translate “yet”;marking the transition from his brighter hopes. Even the solidmountain falls and crumbles away; man therefore cannot “hope”to escape decay or to live again in the present world (Job14:19).
out of his placeso man(Ps 103:16).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought,…. Job here returns to his former subject of the irreparable state of man at death, which he illustrates by various other similes, as before; and first by a “mountain falling”, which may be supposed, and has been fact, and when it does, it “comes to nought”; it crumbles into dust, and where it falls there it lies, and never rises up to a mountain, or to the height it had, any more; or it “withers” n, as some render it, the plants, herbs, and trees that grow upon it, wither away, see Na 1:4; or “it is dissolved”, or “flows” o, and spreads itself over the face of the green earth it covers, and destroys with its dust and sand, which is never more gathered up to form a mountain again; so man, like unto a mountain, as kingdoms and states, and kings and princes, and great men are; the Targum instances in Lot; as a man may be said to be, that is in good health of body, and in prosperous circumstances in his family; when he falls, as he does by death, which is expressed by falling, 2Sa 3:38; he comes to nought, he is not any more in the land of the living, nor in the place and circumstances in which he was before:
and the rock is removed out of his place; from the mountain, of which it was a part; or elsewhere, by earthquakes, by force of winds, or strength of waters; and which, when once removed, is never returned to its place any more; so man, who in his full strength seems like a rock immovable, when death comes, it shakes and moves him out of his place, and that never knows him any more.
n “marceseit”, Tigurine version, Mercerus; “emarcescit”, Schultens. o “Diffluit”, Cocceius, Schmidt, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
10. But hope is destroyed in Sheol. (Job. 14:18-22)
TEXT 14:1822
18 Bat the mountain falling cometh to nought;
And the rock is removed out of its place;
19 The waters wear the stones;
The overflowings thereof wash away the dust of the earth:
So thou destroyeth the hope of man.
20 Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth;
Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.
21 His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not;
And they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.
22 But his flesh upon him hath pain,
And his soul within him mourneth.
COMMENT 14:1822
Job. 14:18How can man hope to escape destruction, since the greatest mountains can be leveled, and the deepest valleys covered over. Impermanence is the central theme.
Job. 14:19As water erodes the stones, so God is destroying (eroding) mans hope. Job here dismisses the very possibility of life after death. We can hopeuntil that ultimate levelerdeath smashes our last moment of life.
Job. 14:20In mans last moment of struggle against death, he is defeated by the despair of finality.[169] Death is extreme and permanent in its conflict with human hope. The phrase sends them away is a verb used euphemistically of dyingThe land from whose borne no traveler has returnedJob. 10:21; 2Sa. 12:23; Ecc. 1:4; Ecc. 3:20; and Psa. 39:13.
[169] D. W. Thomas, Journal of Semitic Studies, 1, 1956, p. 107 – for translation of superlative of nesah – Thou prevailest utterly against him.
Job. 14:21The dead have no knowledgeEcc. 9:5. This is the fate of all mankind. Even children, who think only of life, also share in this fateJob. 1:9. Consciousness in death is limited only to the dead individual, so claims Job. Those who come to honor are also brought low. The sense of R. S. V. is more in line with the text than that of the A. V.
Job. 14:22Job now abandons the traditional resolution of mans troubles, that of leaving a prosperous family behind. But Job has no family. Whether the source be Job or classical naturalistic liberals, it is not very exciting to hope only in the survival of humanityJob. 18:13 and Isa. 66:24.
The first series of speeches is ended. Job is enslaved more deeply in despair than in the initial lament. The slough of despond is deeper than his pain. There he was half in love with easeful death here he stands alone before the grisly terror (Job, Interpreters Bible, Vol. III, p. 1015). But Death Be Not Proud for The Shattering of Silence is yet to come.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
18. And surely But. He now proceeds to sum up.
Cometh to nought Decayeth. Literally, withereth like a leaf. A bold metaphor. Zophar had promised Job, if he would repent, enduring prosperity, (Job 11:15-20.) In a world, Job tacitly replies, where there is nothing substantial where things most stable are overwhelmed with destruction there is nothing for man to hope. Nature is at war with itself, and God with man. Instability characterizes every conceivable work of God’s creative power. AElian says, that it was the general opinion in his time that mounts Parnassus, Olympus, and Etna had much diminished in size.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 14:18 And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.
Ver. 18. And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought ] q.d. If thou, Lord, proceed to deal thus rigidly with me, viz. to number or cipher up my steps, to watch over my sins, to seal them up in a bag, &c., and all this in fierce wrath, that thou mayest lay load upon me; what mountain, what rock, what other creature is ever able to abide it? Job had said before, “Is my strength the strength of stones?” Job 6:12 ; “Am I a sea, or a whale?” Job 7:12 : were I these, or any the like robust creatures, yet could not I expect to stand before the displeased Omnipotency, who taketh the hills like tennis balls, and cracketh the rocks like a nut shell. See Hab 1:4-6 . See Trapp on “ Hab 1:4 “ See Trapp on “ Hab 1:5 “ See Trapp on “ Hab 1:6 “
And the rock is removed out of his place
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 14:18-22
Job 14:18-22
THE FAILURE OF EARTH-LIFE TO SATISFY MANKIND
“But the mountain falling cometh to naught;
And the rock is moved out of its place;
The waters wear the stones;
The overflowings thereof wash away the dust of the earth:
So thou destroyest the hope of man.
Thou prevailest forever against him, and he passeth;
Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.
His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not;
And they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.
But his flesh upon him hath pain,
And his soul within him mourneth.”
This is indeed a sad and mournful picture of our lives upon earth. The notion that men continue to live on in the lives of their children is contradicted by the fact that whatever happens to them is unknown to the deceased. Man’s brief life is subjected to the very same erosive and destructive elements in our world that can wear down the mountains, and even wash away the stones; so “Little by little, man’s hope is destroyed, drop by drop.” But it should not be overlooked that Job in this paragraph is pointing men away from the prospects as they are in this life and in the direction of the eternal things of God. The man who establishes his hope in this world only is a fool. It is a race he cannot win, a hope that he shall never realize, a trial that shall never end, and a warfare that he absolutely cannot win.
OH GOD; THROUGH JESUS CHRIST; HAVE MERCY UPON US ALL!
THOU ART HE BEFORE WHOM THE GENERATIONS OF MEN RISE AND FADE AWAY?
E.M. Zerr:
Job 14:18-19. The point in this paragraph is the power of God over all things in the universe, including man who was made in his own image.
Job 14:20. Countenance is from a word that also means “face.” This is an impressive statement to my mind. And it is contrary to the teaching of the materialists who say that all there is of man goes to the grave at death. It that were so, then who or what is sent away as the text declares?
Job 14:21. Some part of man does not go away or his sons would not come to honor him. If it meant that they honored his memory, they could do that in their own homes without coming to any other place. He knoweth it not because his sons came to honor his dead body at the funeral and of course he (his body) would know nothing about it.
Job 14:22. I like the way Moffatt renders this verse which is as follows: “But his kinsfolk grieve for him, and for him his servants mourn.”
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
the mountain: Psa 102:25, Psa 102:26, Isa 40:12, Isa 41:15, Isa 41:16, Isa 54:10, Isa 64:1, Jer 4:24, Rev 6:14, Rev 8:8, Rev 20:11
cometh to nought: Heb. fadeth
the rock: Job 18:4, Mat 27:51
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 14:18-19. As the mountain falling cometh to naught, &c. As when a great mountain falls, by an earthquake or inundation, it moulders away like a fading leaf, (as the Hebrew ward signifies,) and as the rock, when, by the violence of winds or earthquakes, it is removed out of its place, and thrown down, is never re-advanced; and as the waters, by continual droppings, wear away the stones, so that they can never be made whole again; and as thou wastest away, by a great and violent inundation, the things which grow out of the dust of the earth, herbs, and fruits, and plants, which once washed away are irrecoverably lost; in like manner thou destroyest the hope of man: when man dies, all hope of his living again in this world is lost. Thus, as before he declared the hopelessness of mans restoration from death to this animal life, by way of opposition to such things as did, in a manner, rise from death to life, Job 14:7-10; so now he declares the same thing, by way of similitude to such things as, being once lost and gone, are past all hopes of recovery.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
14:18 And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the {k} rock is removed out of his place.
(k) He murmurs through the impatiency of the flesh against God, as though he used great severity against him as against the hard rocks, or waters that overflow, so that by this the opportunity of his hope is taken away.