best of that which is, be it living or dying, and so to live to the Lord, and die to the Lord, and to be his in both, Rom. xiv. 8.
Job here frets himself with thinking, that, if he had but died as soon as he was born, and been carried from the womb to the grave,
1. His condition would have been as good as that of the best. I should have been (says he, v. 14.) with kings and counsellors of the earth, whose pomp, power, and policy, cannot set them out of the reach of death, nor secure them from the grave, nor distinguish their's from common dust in the grave. Even princes, who had gold in abundance, could not, with it, bribe death to overlook them when he came with commission; and though they filled their houses with silver, yet they were forced to leave it all behind them, no more to return to it. Some, by the desolate places which the kings and counsellors are here said to build for themselves, understand the sepulchres or monuments they prepared for themselves in their life-time; as Shebna (Isa. xxii. 16.) hewed him out a sepulchre; and by the gold which the princes had, and the silver with which they filled their houses, they understand the treasures which, they say, it was usual to deposit in the graves of great men. Such arts have been used to preserve their dignity, if possible, on the other side death, and to keep themselves from lying even with those of inferior rank; but it will not do; death is, and will be, an irresistible leveller; Mors sceptra ligonibus æquat—Death mingles sceptres with spades. Rich and poor meet together in the grave; and there, a hidden untimely birth, (v. 16.) a child that either never saw light, or but just opened its eyes, and peeped into the world, and, not liking it, closed them again, and hastened out of it, lies as soft and easy, lies as high and safe, as kings, and counsellors, and princes that had gold; "And therefore," says Job, "would I had lain there in the dust, rather than live to lie here in the ashes!"
2. His condition would have been much better than now it was, v. 13. "Then should I have lain still and been quiet, which now I cannot do, I cannot be, but am still tossing and unquiet; then I should have slept, whereas now sleep departeth from mine eyes; then had I been at rest, whereas now I am restless." Now that life and immortality are brought to a much clearer light by the gospel than before they were placed in, good Christians can give a better account than this of the gain of death; "Then should I have been present with the Lord, then should I have seen his glory face to face, and no longer through a glass darkly;" but all that poor Job dreamed of, was rest and quietness in the grave, out of the fear of evil tidings, and out of the feeling of sore boils. Then should I have been quiet; and had he kept his temper, his even easy temper still, which he was in, in the two foregoing chapters, entirely resigned to the holy will of God, and acquiescing in it, he might have been quiet now; his soul, at least, might have dwelt at ease, even when his body lay in pain, Ps. xxv. 13.
Observe how finely he describes the repose of the grave; which (provided the soul also be at rest in God) may much assist our triumph over it.
(1.) Those that now are troubled, will there be out of the reach of trouble; (v. 17.) There the wicked cease from troubling: when persecutors die, they can no longer persecute, their hatred and envy are now perished. Herod had vexed the church, but when he became a prey for worms, he ceased from troubling. When the persecuted die, they are out of the danger of being any further troubled. Had Job been at rest in his grave, he had had no disturbance from the Sabeans and Chaldeans, none of all his enemies had created him any trouble.
(2.) Those that are now toiled, will there see the period of their toils; there the weary are at rest: heaven is more than a rest to the souls of the saints, but the grave is a rest to their bodies; their pilgrimage is a weary pilgrimage; sin and the world they are weary of; their services, sufferings, and expectations, they are wearied with; but in the grave they rest from all their labours, Rev. xiv. 13. Isa. lvii. 2. They are easy there, and make no complaints; there believers sleep in Jesus.
(3.) Those that were here enslaved, are there at liberty: death is the prisoner's discharge, the relief of the oppressed, and the servant's manumission, v. 18. There the prisoners, though they walk not at large, yet they rest together, and are not put to work, to grind in that prison-house. They are no more insulted and trampled upon, menaced and terrified, by their cruel task-masters; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. They that were here doomed to perpetual servitude, that could call nothing their own, no not their own bodies, are there no longer under command or control; there the servant is free from his master; which is a good reason why those that have power should use it moderately, and those that are in subjection should bear it patiently, yet a little while.
(4.) Those that were at a vast distance from all others, there are upon a level, v. 19. The small and great are there, there the same, there all one, all alike free among the dead. The tedious pomp and state, which attend the great, are at an end there; all the inconveniences of a poor and low condition are likewise over; death and the grave know no difference.
Levell'd by death, the conqueror and the slave,
The wise and foolish, coward and the brave,
Lie mix'd and undistinguished in the grave.
20. Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul; 21. Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures; 22. Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they can find the grave? 23. Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in? 24. For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters. 25. For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. 26. I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.
Job, finding it to no purpose to wish either that he had not been born, or had died as soon as he was born, here complains that his life was now continued, and not cut off. When men are set on quarrelling, there is no end of it; the corrupt heart will carry on the humour: having cursed the day of his birth, here he courts the day of his death. The beginning of this strife and impatience is as the letting forth of water.
1. He thinks it hard, in general, that miserable lives should be prolonged; (v. 20..22.) Wherefore is light in life given to them that are bitter in soul? Bitterness of soul, through spiritual grievances, makes life itself bitter. Why doth he give light? So it is in the original: he means God, yet does not name him, though the Devil had said, "He will curse thee to thy face;" but he tacitly reflects on the Divine Providence as unjust and unkind, in continuing life, when the comforts of life are removed.
