Exposition of the Whole Bible

N this chapter 7od not only enlarges upon the réafon given in the preceding chapter, why he was defirous of an advocate with God, and one to plead his caufe with him for him, ¥. 1. but adds other reafons taken from the ufage of his friends, from the impoffibility of any but a divine. perfon being his furety;, and of any one being provided and appointed as fuch but by God himfelf; from the infufficiency of his friends to judge of his caufe, and from the condition and circumftances he was in, ¥. 2—7. then he takes notice of the effects his prefent cafe would have on good men, that though they might be aftonifhed at it, they would: be filled with indignation againft hypocrites, and would not be moved and ftum- ‘bled by his afflictions to apoftatize from and defert the good ways of God, y. 8, 9. after which he addreffes his friends, and either calls upon them to renew the difpute with him, or repent of their notions, and join with him in his fentiments, ¥. 10. and laftly defcribes his tate and circumftances, according to his apprehenfion of things, obferving the fhortnefs of his life, and the darknefs of the difpenfation he was under, thro’ one thing and another, y. 11, 12. that he had nothing but the grave in view, which, and its attendants, he had made very familiar with him, y. 13, 14. and that he had no hope of reftoration to a better condition, as to his outward circumftances, and that he, and his hopes his friends would have him entertain, and they alfo, would go down together to the grave, and there fhould lie in the duft, and reft together till the morning of the refurrection, ¥. 15, 16.

difturbed, that he was not himfelf, but in a manner diftracted with the terrors of God, and the feverity of his hand upon him: my days are extin®, here Fob correéts himfelf; he had fpoken of a few years before, but it is as if he fhould fay now, why do I talk of a few years, when I have but a few days to live, and even thofe are as good as gone? meaning not only. his days of profperity, which were at an entire end, as he thought, burt the days of his natural life; the lamp of life was almoft burnt out, the oil was fpent, the wick was juft extinguifhed, it was like the {nuff of a candle going out: ¢he graves are ready for me; the place of his fathers fepulchres, the burial-place of his anceftors, where many graves were; or he may have refpect to various things into which the dead are put, as into fo many graves; as befides their being rolled up in linen, as was the way of the eaftern countries, there was the coffin, a fortof a grave, and place dug in the earth, more properly called the grave, and often over that a fepulchral monument was erected; fo that there was grave upon grave. Job does not feem to have any refpect to the ufage of kings, and great perfonages, preparing ftately monuments for themfelves whilft living, fuch as the pyramids of Egypt, built by and for their kings, as is f{uppofed; for the words, are ready, are not in the text, only fupplied, though they are alfo by the Targum; they are very fhort and fignificant in the original text, she graves for me, or they are mine; the grave is my property, my houfe, where I expect fhortly to be, and there to abide and dwell until the refurrection, and which was defirable to him; @ grave fo me; that is all that I defire, or can expect; here, he withed to be, as he did not doubt he quickly fhould be; and it is as if he fhould fay, I am ready for that, and fo Farchi | paraphrafes it; and happy is the man that is ready for the grave, for death, and eternity, for the coming of his Lord, having the grace of God wrought in him, and the righteoufnefS of his living Redeemer on him, which was 7od’s cafe; fuch an one fhall go into the nuptial chamber at once, and be received into everlafting habitations.

y. 1. My breath is corrupt, &c.] Through the force of his difeafe, which made it have an ill fmell, fo that it was ftrange and difagreeable to his wife, ch. xix. 17. paffing through his lungs, or other parts, which were affected with fome diforder, or as frequently is the cafe of dying perfons, and fo Yo thought himfelf to be. The word " ufed has the fignification of pain, even of the pains of a woman in travail; and fo may fignify, that ‘fob drew his breath with great pain, as people troubled with an afthma do, or dying perfons in the hiccups, or juft fetching their laft breath 5 or my /pirit °, as it may be rendered, that is, his vital {pirits which were exhaufted and fpent, there were fcarce any left in him; or my mind”, or foul, which was overwhelmed with grief, and fo y. 2. Are there not mockers with me? 8cc. ] Meaning not irreligious perfons, fuch as make a mock at fin, a jeft of religion, a laugh at men, fneer at the do¢trines and ordinances of God, \and {cof at things future, as the coming of Chrift, the refurreétion of the dead, and a future judge.

which fometimes was made of ftone; and then the.

ment; with whom it is very uncoimfortable to be, as well as with any fort of prophane men, and fuch there were no doubt in Yod’s time; but he feems to defign his friends, by whom he thought himfelf mocked, and who were, as he imagined, {corners of him, ch. xii. 4. and xvi. 20. and therefore for this reafon intreats his cafe might be heard, and his caufe pleaded: and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation? or lodge all night*; his fenfe is, that they were continually provoking him with their words, their fcoffs and Jeers, their cenfures and calumnies, and the weak reafons and arguments they made ufe of to fupport their charges and fufpicions; thefe dwelt upon his mind not only in the day-time, but in the night, fo that he could not get a wink of fleep for them; their words were fo teizing and diftreffing, and they acted fuch a cruel part to him, and ftuck fo clofe to him, and hung upon his thoughts, that he could not get clear of them in the night-feafon; but his mind ran upon them, which kept him waking that he could not clofe his eye-lids for thinking of them. ¥. 3. Lay down now, &c.] A pledge that thou wilt provide a furety, appoint and admit one to plead for me, and that thou wilt hear my caufe, and determine it; or put now, or put I pray thee", thy heart and mind to me, and my cafe, to my petition and requeft, and grant it: put me in a furety with thee; appoint, provide and place a furety for me with thee, and let him appear to do his work and office: fuch an one Jefus Chrift is; he is of God the Father’s appointing to be the mediator between God and men, and who himfelf voluntarily engaged and agreed to be the furety of the better teftament; and this was known to the Old Teftament-faints, and to Yod 3 and his prayer was the prayer of faith: and this work and office Chrift performs; he was furety for his people from eternity; he drew nigh to God on their account, and ftruck hands with his Father, or covenanted and agreed with him about the falvation of his people, and the manner of it; he gave his word, his bond, to his Father for them, that he would fave them; and upon that furetyfhip-engagement of Chrift, all the Old Teftament-faints were pardoned, juftified and glorified; he promifed and bound himfelf to pay all their debts, to fatisfy for all their fins, to bring in an everlafting righteoufnefs for them, and to bring them all. fafe to heaven and happinefs; in order to which, he put himfelf in their room and ftead, and laid down his life a ranfom for them; upon which Yod might fay, and fo may every believer, what follows, who is be that will frrike hands with me? that will enter the lifts, litigate and difpute the point with me, or bring any charge or accufation againft me, having fuch a furety to anfwer for me, fuch an advocate to plead my caufe, fuch a mediator between God and man, who has made reconciliation for fin, brought in everlafting righteoufnefs, and fatisfied law and juftice, fee Rom. viii. 33, 34. or elfe the fenfe is, who is be befides him that is a furety of God’s appointing and providing, can firike bands with me? or be a furety for me? there is no other Mediator, Saviour or Redeemer befides him; if he had not undertaken the caufe of his people, and the redemption of them, it muft have ceafed for ever, no other was equal to fuch a work; {0 that here is another reafon ufed with the Lord to provide a furety, fince no other could to any purpofe. ¥. 4. For thou haft bid their heart from underftanding, &c.| ‘That.is, the hearts of his friends, and therefore they were unfit to undertake his caufe, or be fureties for him, or be judges in it. It is the fame thing as to hide underftanding from their hearts, which God fometirnes does in a natural fenfe; when men like not the knowledge. of him,. as attainable by the light of nature, he gives them

|up to reprobate minds, minds void of knowledge and judgment in things natural; and fometimes in a fpiritual fenfe, he hides mens hearts from the knowledge of things divine and evangelical, and even this he does from the wife and prudent of this world; yea, fometimes he hides the knowledge of his providential dealings with men, from his own people, as he did from A/aph, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and others; and, a8 it feems from 7ob*s friends, who therefore miftook his café, and were very unfit and infufficient to determine it: sherefore fhalt thou not exalt them; to fuch honour and dignity to be umpires, arbitrators or judges in the cafe of Fob, this God had referved for another, Elihu, ot rather himfelf, who decided the controverfy between Fob and his friénds, and declared in his favour, and that they had not fpoken the thing that was right of him, as his fervant ob had done, ch. xlii. 7.

¥. 5. He that Jpeaketh flattery to his friends, &c.

As Yob’s friends did to him when they promifed great outward profperity, and a reftoration to his tormer ftate, and to a greater affluence upon his repentance and reformation; or when ‘they fpoke deceitfully for God, pretending great regard to the honour of his juftice and holinefs, and therefore infifted on it, that he muft be a wicked man and an hypocrite, that was afflicted by him, as Fob was: even the eyes of bis children foall fail, fo hateful are fome fins to God, and particularly deceitful tongues, and flattering lips, that he will punifh them in their pofterity; the eyes of their children fhall fail for want of fuftenance, and whilft they are looking in vain for falvation and deliverance out of trouble, fee Exod. xx. 4. ¥. 6. He bath made me alfo a by-word of the people, &c.] Either Eliphaz, or God; for whatfoever befel him, whether more immediately by the hand of God, or by any inftrument, he afcribes it to him, as being fuffered in providence to befal him; as when he became a by-word or proverb to the people in common, to whom an example might - be fet by one or more of 0d’s friends. The name of Fob is to this day a by-word or proverb among men, both for his poverty and his patience; if a man is defcribed as very poor, he is faid to be as poor as Fob; or if very patient under his afflictions, he is faid to be as patient as Fob; but as neither of thefe are to the difgrace of Fob, fomething elfe feems rather intended here, even fomething to his reproach; as when a man was'reprefented as a very wicked man, or an hypocrite, it ufed to be faid, fuch an one is as wicked a creature, and as arrant an hypocrite, as ob: and aforetime I was as a tabret, the delight of the people, who when he appeared in the public ftreets, came out and went before him, finging, and dancing, and beating on tabrets, and fuch like mufical inftruments,. é FS) PTY pone ftruments, to exprefs their joy upon the fight of fof them: and the innocent foall fiir up bimfelf him; but now it was otherwile with him, and he whom they. could not fufficiently extol and commend, now knew not well what to fay bad enough of him; fuch a change in the fentiments and conduét of men, muft needs be very chagrining: or afore-time I was as a lord, as Ben Gerfom, from the yle of the word in Daz. iii, 2. as he fuppofes; he was like a lord or nobleman, or as one in fome high office, and now as the offscouring of all things; or it denotes what he was Jefore them, the people in their fight at prefent, and fhould be; the word uled is Tophet, which Aven Ezra takes to, be the name of a place, and as it feems of that place where children were offered to Molech, and which. place was in being, and fuch practices ufed by the Canaanites in the times of 7ed; and this place which was alfo called the valley of Hinnom, being afterwards ufed for hell, led the Targum to paraphrafe the words thus, avd bell from within fhall I be, and fo Sephorno, in appearance hell to all that fee me; and in general it may fignify that he was, or fhould be avoided, as any unclean place, very ungrateful and difagreeable, as that place was; or as anything abominable, and to be loathed and rejected, and this way go feveral interpreters‘; though fome think refpect is had to the punifhment of tympanization, in which fufferers were beat upon in feveral parts of their bodies, as if men were beating upon a tabret or drum, which gave great pain and tormen, fee Heb. xi. 35, 37- and with fuch-like cruelty and indignity Yob fuggefts he was, or fhould be ufed; and therefore. begs for a furety, for one to interpofe and plead on his behalf, let the carriage of men to him be what it will, that is here referred to; compare with this P/- Ixix. 11.

¥.7. Mine eye alfo is dim by reafon of. forrow, &c.] Through exceflive weeping, and the abundance of tears he fhed, fo that he had almoft loft his eye-fight, or however it was greatly weakened and impaired by that means, which is often the cafe, fee P/.vi. 7. and xxxi. g. and allmy. members are as a shadow; his flefh was confumed off his bones, there were nothing left {carcely but fkin and bone; he was a mere anatomy, and as thin as a lath, as we commonly fay of a man that is quite worn away, as it were; is a walking fhadow, has {carce any fubftance in him, but is the mere fhadow of aman; the Zargum interprets it of his form, fplendor and countenance, which were like a fhadow; fome interpret it my thoughts‘, and underftand it of the formations of his mind, and not of his body, which were fhadows, empty, fleeting, and having no confittence in them through that forrow that poffeffed him.

¥. 8. Upright men fhall be aftonifhed at this, &c.

Such as were upright in heart, and in their walk and converfation, fincere and honourable in their profeffion of religion, thefe would be amazed at the afflictions ot Fod, and the unkindnefs of his friends; it is hereby fuggefted, that it would be then, and in ages to come, a matter of furprize to truly gracious perfons, when they fhould ’ hear of fuch fore afflictions laid upon fo good a man, and be told what ceniures, calumnies and reproaches were-caft upon him by his friends; this would be fo aftonifhing, that they would not know how to believe it, and {till more at a lofs how.to account for it, that fuch things fhould be permitted in providence, there being reafon to believe the truth they are not tree from fin, yet live holy and harmlefs lives and converfations among men, fo that they are not chargeable with any grofs iniquity, or what is fcandalous and unbecoming their. charac-~ ter; thefe fhall rife up with indignation againft fuch perfons as pretend toa great deal of fan¢tity and devotion, and yet have no charity.or love to an afflied faint, but cenfure and reproach him, and add affliction to his affliction. Thus Fod retorts the charge of hypocrify his friends brought jagainft him upon them; for he feems. tacitly to defign them, and delivers thefe words as a kind of folace to himfelf; that though he was thus ufed by them at.that time, yet good men in future time would have. different apprehenfions of him, and rife.up_and vindicate his name and character. °

¥. g. The righteous alfo foall bold on bis way,

&c.]. He that is righteous, not in appearance but really, not in a legal.but in an evangelic fenfe; who is juftified by the righteoufnefs of Fob’s living Redeemer, who lives by faith on his righteoufnefs, and in confequence of that in holineds of life and converfation; fuch an one being in Chrift the way of righteoufnefs.and falvation, and walking in the paths of faith, holinefs and truth, and in all the tracks of religious worfhip, private and public, he will perfevere therein, and will, not on any account depart out of the right way into which he has been led and directed. This is oppofed to a going back, as fome do, and to a turning to the right-hand or the left, as others, and toa ftanding ftill, being flumbled, offended and difcoura- in the way, fo as not to be moved outof it by their own, or the afflictions of others, by the reproaches and perfecutions of men, the temptations — of Satan, the fnares, riches, honours and pleafures of the world, or through darknefs, defertion and unbelief; they may indeed have many flips and falls, and be almoft, but not altogether, out of the way, and never finally or to perdition; which is- owing not to their conduct and care; might and ftrength, but to the power of God, and the fupplies of his grace, to Chrift and his ftrength, and to the Spirit and his influence, guidance and direction: and be that bath clean bands foall be fironger, and fironger; or add frrength"; increafeinit: This character is oppofed to one of an immoral life and converfation, and defcribes one that is not guilty of any notorious crime, that does not live in any known fin, but in the general courfe of his life is upright and fincere, holy, harmlefs and inoffenfive; fuch a man as he: is already a partaker of ipiritual grace and ftrength, and fo as he wants more, it is given him; his {piritual {trength is renewed, he goes from, one degree of it to another, and even

|whilft walking in the way of God, he -finds an increafe of it; yea, that itfelf is ftrength unto him; as his day is his ftrength is, to affift him in religious-fervices, to enable him to refift his enemies, and endure afflictions, and continue in the good ways of God. J) yet y. 10. But as for you all, do ye return, and come now, &c.| ‘This is an addrefs to his three friend all and every one of them, who ke percei were nettled with his reply, and were either departing, or preparing for a rejoinder; and being con- nefs of his caufe, and having nothing to fear from them, boldly challenges them to go on with the difpute; for tho’ they were three to one; a match for them all; or elfe he calls upon them to turn and repent of what they had faid to to relingquifh the bad notions and ill opinion had of him, and to retract their hard fpeeches and unjuft cenfures, and return to a friendly and amicable converfation; or however, that they would come and fit down quietly, and patiently hear he had farther to fay to them for their information and inftruétion, which they ftood in great need of: for I cannot find one wife man among you that took his cafe right, was capable of judging of it, fpeaking pertinently to it, and of adminiftring comfort to ‘him in it; they were phyficians, but fkilful ones; comforters, but miferable ones; had fot the tongue of the learned, to fpeak a word in feafon; difputants, but wranglers, and knew not where the pinch of the controverfy lay; and their arguments were weak and worthlefs, and their judgment and fenie of things not deferving any regard, fee 1 Cor. vi. 5. joyed, is but fhort, becaufe of y. 11.) Mytdays are paft, &c.] Or paffed away or paffed over“; not that they had paffed over the time fixed ‘and appointed by God, for there is no paffing the’ bound; fettled by him, ch. xiv.5. but either the common term of man’s life was pafied with Job, or he fpeaks of things in his own apprehenfion; ‘he imagined his death. was fo near, that he had not a day longer to lives his days, ashebefore fays, were extinct, were at an end, he fhould never _ enjoy another day; and therefore it was folly to flatter him with a promife of long life, or encourage him to expect it; which he may mention as a proof of there being not a wife man among them, fince they all fuggefted this in cafe of repentance; or his meaning is, that his good days, or days of goodnefs, as farchi interprets it, were paft, his days ef profperity: were at an end, and evil days were come upon him, in which he had no pleafure; nor had he any reafon to believe it would be with him: my purpofes are broken off; Fob doubtlefs had formed in his mind great defigns of good things, natural, civil and religious, concerning the enlargement of his temporal eftate, the fettlement of his children in the world, making provifion for the poor, fupporting and enlarging the intereft of true religion, the reformation of his heathenifh} neighbours, and the fpread of divine truths among them; but now.they were all fruftrated, he was'not in a capacity of carrying them into execution, and was obliged to drop them, and think no more of them, nor was there with him any profpect of ever renewing them; they were rooted up*, or plucked up, as fome render the ‘word, fo that there was no likelihood of their ever rifing up again, and coming to any effect: even the thoughis of my beart; or the poffefions’ of it, as the thoughts are; they are the things of a man, which efpecially belong to him; they’are the inheritance of his mind, what none have a right unto, and a claim upon, but himfelf, nor can any know but himfelf, and whom he difcovers them: now the thread of thefe is broken off at death, they then ceafe; not that the mind or foul of man ceadfes to be, of ceafes to be a thinking being, ic ftillthinks; but only its thoughts are not employed about the fame’ things in a future ftate, or in the ftate after d this, fee Pf. cxlvi. 4.

he was) ¥. 12. They change the night into day, 8c. ] Meaning either his friends, by what they had faid him,junto him, or the thoughts of his“ heart, which they comes to the fame fenfe; thefe being in the nightfeafon employed about what had been faid to him in the day, infomuch that he could get no fléep, the night was as broad day unto him; or they put what the day before the night, contrary to the order of nature, as No/dius * obferves, whereas the night is. before the day, Gen. i. 5. his friends promifing him long days, and an age clearer than noon-day, andjas bright as the morning, ch. xi. 17. when the night of death was coming on, and he was haftennotjing to the dark and filent grave: the light is hort, decau/e of darknefs, the morning:light, or light of the day, when that comes continues but for a fhort time, becaufe of the darknefs of the evening, which quickly follows; or becaufe of the darknels of affiction, which fills it up, and makes it uncomfortable; or the light of profperity, could it be en- ‘the darknefs of adverfity; or the light is near*, as in the original text; though Farchi interprets the word fhort, as we do; Woldius renders it, the light is rather nearer than darkne/s”,; after the night has Been fpent without fleepy'the morning-light is nearer than darknefs; that may foon be expected, and fo an end to fleep and reft.

y.13. If I wait, the grave is mine boufe, &c.] Not that Yod put an 7f upon, or made a doubt of waiting upon God in private or public; or of waiting for him, his gracious appearances to him, an- {wers of prayer, performance of promifes, and deliverance out of trouble; and efpecially of waiting his appointed time till his change came, and hoping and expecting eternal life and happinefs; -all }which he determined to do, and did, fee ch. xiii. 15, 16. and xiv. 14. and xix..25, 26,27. but, he fays'this with refpect to the advice of his friends, otherwife which fhould it be taken, the iffue of it would be no other than what he here fuggetts; they had intimated, that if’he repented and reformed, he might hope for and expect a’ peaceable tabernacle, and.a profperous habitation, a fine houfe, and affluent circumftances, ch. v..24. and viii. 6. Now, fays he, fhould I liften to this, and endeavour to che- | tifh fome hope and expectation of fuch things, and put myfclf in a waiting pofture for them; alas, how foon would it be over, for what other houfe can I rationally expect but the grave? and chis is what I have concluded upon; I think of no other houfe than that, which is man’s long home, the houfe appointed for all living; there I fhall dwell, and make my abode until the morning, of the refurrection, and I look for no other; and if I {hould; I am well affured I fhould be difappointed: 1 bave made my bed in the darknefs; in the dark grave, where the light of the body is extinét, and where the light of the fun comes not; in houfes there are divers apartments, fome for work and tojbufinefs, as is the fhop; others for eating and drinking, as the dining-room; and others for fleep and reft,as the bed-chamber; now in the houfe of the grave, there is no mention of any but the latter; for there is no work and device in the grave, nor eating and drinking there; but it is a bed where the weary faint lies down and refts upon from all his toil and labour, until he awakes at the refurrection: now feb had fettled the matter with himfelf, he had laid it out in his own mind, and taken a kind of pleafure in the profpect of it; that he had got a houfe to remove into, when hé was diflodged from the earthly houfe of his tabernacle, and where he had made him(elf, in his own thought, an eafy bed, on which he fhould lay his weary limbs, and take his fleep and reft, until the heavens be no more.

y. 14. Ihave faid to corruption, thou art my father, &c.] Not to the corruptible feed, of which he was begotten; nor to the corruption or purulent matter of his boils and ulcers, and the worms his flefh was now clothed with, ch. vii. 5. but to that corruption his body: would turn to in the grave, lying long enough to fee it, which Chrift’s body did not, Pf. xvi. 10. that is, zo the pit of corruption“, as it may be rendered, meaning the grave, fo called becaufe in it dead bodies corrupt and putrefy: in houfes are families confifting of various perfons, of different relations, who dwell together in friendfhip and harmony, very lovingly and familiarly, as father and mother, brother and fifter; fo in the grave, the dwelling-houfe of men, there are inhabitants that dwell together, as if they were familiar friends and acquaintance; and with thefe ¥ob claims kindred, fuch as corruption, rottennefs, duft and worms, and thefe he fpeaks unto, not only very familiarly, but very refpectfully; the note of Bar Tzemach is, ‘* I honour the grave as a fon a father, that it may receive me quickly;” yea, he fpeaks as not afhamed of the relation, but is fond of it; J called or cried“, that is, aloud, with great vehemency and affection: to the worm, thou art my mother and my fifter, thefe are the rather mentioned, becaufe the relation is near, and they are very loving and tender, and abide in the houfe, fee Prov. vii. 5. he calls thefe his mother and fifter, as the above Yewi/h commentator obferves, becaufe he might lie in their bofom; by all this 7o4 would reprefent how familiar death and the grave were to him, and how little he dreaded them; yea, how defirable they were to him, fince he fhould be at home, and among his relations and friends.

¥. 15. And where is now my hope? &c.] Not the grace of hope, which was in his heart; and though it might fometimes be low in exercife, it could not be loft; it is an anchor, fure and ftedfaft, and is one of the graces that always abides, and never difappoints and makes afhamed; nor the object of hope, eternal glory and happinefs in another world, that is laid up in heaven, and for which he was looking and waiting by faith; but his hope of outward happinefs, and of being reftored to his former ftate of profperity, or a better, which his friends encouraged him to; this had no place in him, nor did he fee any reafon to cherith it, all grotind and foundation of it was removed, as he apprehended; there was nothing on which he could build fuch an hope as that, fee ch. vi. 11. and xix. 10. as for my hope, who fhall fee it 2? that is, which» his friends would have him hope for, a fine houfe,, a large eftate, a-numerous family, honour and re- {pect among men, long life, and an abundance of outward peace and happinefs; this he was firmly perfuaded he fhould never fee; being juft going into the grave, nor his friends that fuggefted thefe things to him, nor any body elfe; though indeed what he himfelf truly hoped for, might be rightly thus defcribed, being things not feen by the eye of the body, nor by carnal fenfe and reafon, but are the invifible glories and realities of another world, for hope that is feen is not hope, 8c. Rom. Vill. 24,25. 2 Cor.iv. 18. Heb. xi. 1. but Fob does not defign thefe, but the former.. ¥.16. They fall go down to the bars of the pit; &c.} He himtelf, and his friends, and the hopes they would have him entertain; thefe fhould all go down together to the grave, and there lie barred and locked up; thefe hopes fo as never to rife more;

and the bodies of himfelf; and his friends; till loofed by him, who has the keys of hell and death: or she bars fhall go down to the grave; the members of his body, as Farchi, which are the bars of it, as fome in Bar Tzemach; the ftrength and fupport of it, as particularly the bones, thefe fhall go down to the grave, and there turn to rottennefs and duft; and therefore, as if he fhould fay, as. he elfewhere does, what is my ftrength that I fhould hope, ch. vi. 11. when our ret together is in the duft s which is man’s original, and to which he returns, and in which, the dead lie and fleep until the refurreétion; and where they are at reft from all adverfity and affliction of body, mind and eftate; from all the troubles and vexations occafioned by wicked men, and from all difputes, wranglings, contentions and animofities among friends, which would be the cafe of Job, and his friends, when their heads were laid in the duft, and which he fuppofed would quickly be; and therefore it was in vain for them to feed him with hopes of outward happinefs, and for him to entertain them; it beft became them both to think of death and the grave as near at hand, where their controverfies would be buried, and they would be good friends, and lie quietly together, and take their reft until they fhould awake and rife to everlafting life.