Job 14:18

_AND SURELY THE MOUNTAIN FALLING COMETH TO NOUGHT, AND THE ROCK IS REMOVED OUT OF HIS PLACE._ Cometh to nought - literally, fadeth; a poetical image from a leaf (Isaiah 34:4). Here Job falls back into his gloomy bodings as to the grave. Instead of "and surely," translate 'yet,' marking the transition from his brighter hopes (umbreit). Even the solid mountain falls and crumbles away; man, therefore, cannot "hope," worn as he is by continued calamities, to escape decay, or to live again in the present world (Job 14:19). OUT OF HIS PLACE - so man (Psalms 103:16, "And the place thereof shall know it no more")....

16-22 Job's faith and hope spake, and grace appeared to revive; but depravity again prevailed. He represents God as carrying matters to extremity against him. The Lord must prevail against all who contend with him. God may send disease and pain, we may lose all comfort in those near and dear to us, every hope of earthly happiness may be destroyed, but God will receive the believer into realms of eternal happiness. But what a change awaits the prosperous unbeliever! How will he answer when God shall call him to his tribunal? The Lord is yet upon a mercy-seat, ready to be gracious. Oh that sinners would be wise, that they would consider their latter end! While man's flesh is upon him, that is, the body he is so loth to lay down, it shall have pain; and while his soul is within him, that is, the spirit he is so loth to resign, it shall mourn. Dying work is hard work; dying pangs often are...

Verse Job 14:18. _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....

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; 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 i

EXPOSITION JOB 14:1 This chapter, in which Job concludes the fourth of his addresses, is characterized by a tone of mild and gentle expostulation, which contrasts with the comparative vehemence and passion of the two preceding chapters. It would seem that the patriarch, having vented his feelings, experiences a certain relief, an interval of calm, in which, his own woes pressing less heavily upon him, he is content to moralize on the general condition of humanity. JOB 14:1 MAN THAT IS BORN OF A WOMAN. In this fact Job sees the origin of man's inherent weakness. He is "born of a woman," who is "the weaker vessel" (1 Peter 3:7). He is conceived by her in uncle

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 Nahum 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, tha...

CHAPTER S 12-14 JOB'S ANSWER TO ZOPHAR _ 1. His sarcasm (Job 12:1)_ 2. He describes God's power (Job 12:7) 3. He denounces his friends (Job 13:1) 4. He appeals to God (Job 13:14) 5. The brevity and trouble of life (Job 14:1) 6. The ray of light through hope of immortality (Job 14:7) Job 12:1. He answers not only Zophar but the others as well. Before this Job had expressed his

JOB 14:16 turns to the contrast of Job's present misery and hopeless end. Now God watches Job (Job 14:16). God writes down his sins, and seals up the indictments in a bag (Job 14:17). The mountains perish and the stones are worn away: so God destroys man's hope, and the man himself (Job 14:18). He is sunk in Sheol where he neither knows nor cares for the concerns of his family (Job 14:21). Only his flesh upon him hath pain and his soul within him mourneth (Job 14:22). [The flesh suffers pain through

Job 13:22 to Job 14:22. Job pleads his cause before God Having ordered his cause and challenged his friends to observe how he will plead, Job now enters, with the boldness and proud bearing of one assured of victory, upon his plea itself. There is strictly no break between the passage which follows and the foregoing; the division is only made here for convenience" sake. It would scarcely be according to the author's intention to make Job 13:23 the plea, and assume that, as God did not answer the demand there made, Job's plea took another turn. The question whether Job actually did expect that he would be replied to out of heaven can hardly be answered. We must, however, take into account the extreme excitation of his mind, and the vividness

10. But hope is destroyed in Sheol. (Job 14:18-22) TEXT 14:18-22 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 14:18-22 JOB 14:18How can man hope to escape destruction, since the greatest mountains can be leveled, and the deepest valleys covered over. Impermanence