Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 21:23
One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
23. in his full strength ] lit. in his very perfection, or completeness, meaning, in the full enjoyment of all that made his lot complete, wanting nothing as the second clause explains.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
One dieth in his full strength – Margin, very perfection, or, in the strength of his perfection. The meaning is, that he dies in the very prime and vigor of life, surrounded with everything that can contribute to comfort. Of the truth of this position, no one can doubt; and the wonder is, that the friends of Job had not seen or admitted it.
Being wholly at ease and quiet – That is, having everything to make them happy, so far as external circumstances are concerned. He is borne down by no calamities; he is overwhelmed by no sudden and heavy judgments. The phrase in this verse rendered full strength ( beetsem tomo), is literally, in the bone of his perfection. It means full prosperity.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 21:23; Job 21:25-26
One dieth in his full strength . . . Another dieth in the bitterness of his soul.
Providence vindicated against the superficial observer
That which hampers men most in understanding providence is its tremendous extent. It is like a great poem, and all that one life or one observer can read is a few words, or at most, a few lines. God does not always show His hand. Sometimes He does, and when it suits Him better, He hides it. It is expedient that some mystery hang over the dispensations of this life. Whatever is unsatisfactory, therefore, at present plainly suggests that the scheme is yet unfinished. The unsatisfactory nature of the present suggests a future. Revelation steps in to tell us that this life is but the vestibule of existence. One or two considerations will modify our hasty conclusions in regard to the real fortunes of those who live and die around us, whether their circumstances be apparently prosperous or depressed.
1. Happiness and misery are by no means always according to appearance. They depend more upon the inner state of the soul than its outward surroundings, and are therefore put, to some extent, within the power of everyone.
2. Men make their judgments too much from the outside. It is the outside look of providence that puzzles us, and makes understanding difficult.
We arrive at the following conclusions–
1. God is no indifferent spectator of human fortunes, but manages them on a perfectly righteous plan.
2. The deceptive character of appearances makes it necessary to subtract a good deal from the apparent happiness and misery of the world at the outset of our investigations.
3. Physical disadvantages, and deprivation of the members and senses are capable of compensation in the other world.
4. The difficulty in understanding aright the providence of God, arises from the complex nature of many of His acts, which may have various distinct branches or departments, as penal, disciplinary, merciful, and even remunerative, all in a single stroke.
5. We can understand enough of the Divine doings to enable us to trust for the remainder.
6. The root of all happiness is a good conscience, and this is put within the reach of all.
7. A good conscience can only be had and maintained by seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness with all the means in our power.
8. And for all the purposes of practical piety, it is rather necessary we should remember the superintending arm of the great Worker, than that we should understand what He is doing. (William Isaac Keay.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 23. One dieth in his full strength] In this and the three following verses Job shows that the inequality of fortune, goods, health, strength, c., decides nothing either for or against persons in reference to the approbation or disapprobation of God, as these various lots are no indications of their wickedness or innocence. One has a sudden, another a lingering death but by none of these can their eternal states be determined.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
One, to wit, either,
1. One of these wicked men, of whose condition he is here speaking. Or,
2. Any one man, whether good or bad. In his full strength; in a state of perfect health, and strength, and prosperity; all which this phrase implies.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
23. Literally, “in the boneof his perfection,” that is, the full strength of unimpairedprosperity [UMBREIT].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
One dieth in his full strength,…. Man is born a weak feeble creature, and it is by degrees, and through various stages of infancy, childhood, and youth, that he arrives to his full strength in manhood; and, when he does, sometimes so it is, that his strength is not weakened in the course of his life by a train of disorders and diseases, as it is in some; but death seizes and carries him off in the prime of his days, and in the fulness of his strength; for no strength of man, even the greatest, is a security against death: thousands die before they come to their full strength, and multitudes after it begins to decay; and when it is almost wasted, through the force of distempers, or the infirmities of old age, and others, as here, when their strength is in its highest rigour and utmost perfection, and all as God pleases: the words may be rendered “in the strength of his integrity”, or “of his perfection” f; in the Targum and Ben Gersom, and so Mr. Broughton, “in his very perfection”; and the word is sometimes used, in a moral and spiritual sense, of the integrity of a man’s heart, and the uprightness of his ways and walk, and of the perfection of his state God-ward; see Job 1:1; and such a man who is upright in heart and conversation, who is truly gracious, sincerely a good man, and perfect through the complete righteousness of Christ, he dies such, his integrity continues with him to the last; and his graces being brought to maturity, he comes to his grave like a shock of corn in its season, and is found in the perfect righteousness of his living Redeemer: but it seems best to take the words in a natural and literal sense, as before; or to interpret them of the fulness of outward felicity, which some men arrive unto, and die in the midst of, when they have got to the highest degree of honour and grandeur, and attained to the greatest degree of wealth and riches, it could well be supposed they would; and then, when in the perfection of it, have been taken away by death; both these senses may stand together: it follows,
being wholly at ease and quiet; in easy circumstances, having an affluence of all good things, and nothing to disturb them, nor are in trouble as others, or plagued as they be; having all that heart can wish, or more, and without any pains of body, at least any long and continued ones; while others are attended with them, days, and months, and years, before their death, Job 33:19; whereas these go down to the grave in a moment, feeling little or no pain, and are quiet and easy in their minds, thoughtless of a future state, and unconcerned how it will be with them in another world; having no sight nor sense of sin, of the evil nature and just demerit of it, feel not the weight and burden of it in their consciences; have no concern or grief of mind for sins of omission or commission, no godly sorrow for it, or repentance of it, nor any fears of wrath and ruin, hell and damnation; but as they are at ease from their youth, with respect to those things, so they live and so they die, secure, stupid, and senseless. Some interpret this of good men g; and it is not to be wondered at that a man that dies in his integrity, in the perfection of grace, holiness, and righteousness, should be at ease and quiet; who has an interest in the God of peace, whose peace is made by the blood of Christ, his Peacemaker, and who has a conscience peace arising from a comfortable view of the peace speaking blood, righteousness, and sacrifice of the Mediator; who knows his state is safe, being interested in everlasting love, in an unchangeable covenant in God, as his covenant God, in Jesus his living Redeemer; and knows where he is going, to heaven, to happiness and glory, to be with God, with Christ, with holy angels and glorified saints: but the former sense seems best, of a man dying in easy circumstances, without pain of booty, or distress of mind, whether we understand it of a good man or bad man, though the latter is rather meant.
f “in fortitudine perfectionis suae”, Pagninus; so Junius and Tremellius, Piscator; “in fortitudine integritatis suae”, Montanus, Bolducius; so Drusius, Mercerus. g So Schmidt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
4. The only equality is to be found in death. (Job. 21:23-26)
TEXT 21:2326
23 One dieth in his full strength,
Being wholly at ease and quiet:
24 His pails are full of milk,
And the marrow of his bones is moistened.
25 And another dieth in bitterness of soul,
And never tasteth of good.
26 They lie down alike in the dust,
And the worm covereth them.
COMMENT 21:2326
Job. 21:23One dies in his perfection, i.e., prime of life. Death levels everyoneJob. 21:23-26. One person dies in prosperity, another in poverty.
Job. 21:24The Hebrew hardly says what the A. V. provides in the first line. The first word is a hapaz (does not appear elsewhere) but perhaps is a euphemism for buttocks which is plump or fat (emend halabmilkto helebfat). The second line contains figures (moist bones are figures of health) which suggest that the person is well fed or prosperous. Death takes them all, regardless of social status or physical condition.
Job. 21:25The verse is Jobs description of himselfJob. 3:20 and Job. 7:7.
Job. 21:26The ungodly and the righteous share the samedeathEcc. 2:14 ff. It is the dissimilarity in the human fate, rather than retribution, which moves JobJob. 17:14; Isa. 14:11 b.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(23) One dieth.Job enlarges on the inequality of human fate, showing that death is the only equaliser.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
23. One dieth The wicked man whose life of uninterrupted prosperity he proceeds to describe.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 21:23 One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
Ver. 23. One dieth in his full strength ] Iste moritur, There is one dieth in his very perfections; or, in the strength of his perfection, when he is in the zenith, in the highest degree, of earthly felicity; and he seemeth to point at some one eminent wicked person, well known to them all. Confer Ecc 9:2 . God is pleased to do wonderful contradictory things in man’s reason; so that we must needs confess an unsearchableness in his ways. In hoc opere, ratio humana talpa magis caeca est, saith Brentius; In this work of his, human reason is blinder than a mole. Averroes turned atheist upon it, and Aristotle was little better, as being accused at Athens and banished into Chalcis, quod de divinitate male sentiret. because he was thinking poorly about the gods.
Being wholly at ease and quiet
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 21:23-26
Job 21:23-26
DEATH LEVELS ALL; BOTH THE WICKED AND THE RIGHTEOUS
“One dieth in his full strength,
Being fully at ease and quiet:
His pails are full of milk,
And the marrow of his bones is moistened.
And another dieth in bitterness of soul,
And never tasteth of good.
They lie down alike in the dust,
And the worm covereth them.”
“They lie down alike in the dust” (Job 21:26). Job here declares that as in life there is no visible separation of the wicked from the righteous in the degree of their prosperity, even so it is the same way in death. “One man dies in prosperity and another in misery; and both may be either wicked or good.”
E.M. Zerr:
Job 21:23-25. I have made one paragraph out of these verses so the reader will see and appreciate the argument of Job. The first and last of the verses should be considered especially. The experiences of the two men in them are just opposite to each other, yet one of them is as likely to be sinful as the other. The words of the middle verse are figurative, meaning the man is healthy and prosperous.
Job 21:26. The frailty of all human beings and their common lot in the grave is the subject of the verse. It brings to mind some words of an old song, “Six feet of earth makes us all of one size.”
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
in his full strength: Heb. in his very perfection, or, the strength of his perfection, Job 20:22, Job 20:23, Psa 49:17, Psa 73:4, Psa 73:5, Luk 12:19-21
Reciprocal: Job 24:19 – so doth Job 27:19 – shall lie Job 36:14 – They die Jer 5:28 – waxen
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 21:23-24. One dieth in his full strength In a state of perfect health, and strength, and prosperity; all which this phrase implies. His breasts are full of milk The Hebrew word, , gnatin, here rendered breasts, is not elsewhere used in Scripture, and therefore is translated different ways. Houbigant renders the clause, When his bowels are loaden with fatness. Others, When his milk-pails are full of milk; or, his oil-vessels are full of fatness. And his bones are moistened with marrow Which is opposed to that dryness of the bones (Job 30:30; Psa 102:3;) which is caused by old age or grievous distempers and calamities.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
21:23 One {m} dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.
(m) Meaning, the wicked.