Job 4:19-21, 15:16 | JFB | STEP | 19. houses of clay — ( ). Houses made of sun-dried clay bricks are common in the East; they are easily washed away ( ). Man's foundation is this dust ( ). before the moth —rather, "as before the moth," which devours a garment ( ). Man, who cannot, in a physical point of view, stand before the very moth, surely cannot, in a moral, stand before God.

Job 4:19-21

19. houses of clay— (2Co 5:1). Houses made of sun-dried clay bricks are common in the East; they are easily washed away (Mt 7:27). Man's foundation is this dust (Ge 3:19).

before the moth—rather, "as before the moth," which devours a garment (Job 13:28; Ps 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.

20. from morning to evening—unceasingly; or, better, between the morning and evening of one short day (so Ex 18:14; Isa 38:12).

They are destroyed—better, "they would be destroyed," if God withdrew His loving protection. Therefore man must not think to be holy before God, but to draw holiness and all things else from God (Job 4:17).

21. their excellency— (Ps 39:11; 146:4; 1Co 13:8). But UMBREIT, by an Oriental image from a bow, useless because unstrung: "Their nerve, or string would be torn away." MICHAELIS, better in accordance with Job 4:19, makes the allusion be to the cords of a tabernacle taken down (Isa 33:20).

they die, even without wisdom—rather, "They would perish, yet not according to wisdom," but according to arbitrary choice, if God were not infinitely wise and holy. The design of the spirit is to show that the continued existence of weak man proves the inconceivable wisdom and holiness of God, which alone save man from ruin [UMBREIT]. BENGEL shows from Scripture that God's holiness (Hebrew, kadosh) comprehends all His excellencies and attributes. DE WETTE loses the scope, in explaining it, of the shortness of man's life, contrasted with the angels "before they have attained to wisdom."

Job 15:16

16. filthy—in Arabic "sour" (Ps 14:3; 53:3), corrupted from his original purity.

drinketh— (Pr 19:28).