Job 5:26

Thou shalt come to [thy] grave in a full age,.... Or, "go into thy grave" (o), which is represented as a house to enter into and dwell in; and so the wise man calls it man's long home, and Job his

Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season. In a full age - so full of days (42:17; Genesis 35:29).

In a full age; in a mature and old, but vigorous, age, as the word implies. Thou shalt not be cut off by a hand of violence before thy time, as thy sons and other wicked men have been; but shalt die in a good old age, as did Abraham, , and Moses, . As a shock of corn cometh in; as a heap or stack of corn is brought in, to wit, to the barn. Heb. ascendeth, or riseth; which word is very proper and usual in this case; for a stack of corn is said to rise, when by the addition of new heaps and handfuls it is raised to a higher pitch. Or, is cut off, as this same word is used, . Cut me not off, &c., Heb. Make me not to ascend; and thus it is fitly used both of the corn, which when it is cut up ascends, or is lifted up from the earth, on which it lay, and is advanced into stacks and high heaps, either in the barn or in the field; and of man, who when he dies his spirit goeth upward to heaven, as is implied even there where in the person of an epicure it is questioned, . In his season; in harvest, when the corn is ripe.

Job 5:26 Thou shalt come to [thy] grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.Ver. 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age] In a good old age, or (as the Hebrew hath it, Genesis 25:8) with a good hoar head, in an ευγηρια, when thou hast even a satiety of life, and art as willing to die as ever thou wast to dine, or to rise from table after a full meal. The Hebrews made a feast when they were past 60 years of age; and some of them observe that the numeral letters of Chelach (the word here used) make up sixty, but that is not a full old age; rather it is the beginning of it. Thou shalt die in lusty old age, so Broughton rendereth it, old, and yet healthy and comfortable, as was Moses, Deuteronomy 34:7; and Mr Dod, that Moses of our times. Of Mr Samuel Crook likewise it is recorded (in his Life by W. G.), that when he saw no more ability for labours he desired to die in a satiety and fulness of life; not as a meat loathed (as many times natural men do), but as a dish, though well liked, that he had fed his full of; few men having ever run so long a race without cessation or cespitation, so constantly, so unweariably, so unblameably. Lo, such a hoary head was a crown of glory, as being found in the way of righteousness, Proverbs 16:31. But so are not all that yet are long lived. A sinner may do evil a hundred times, and yet have his days prolonged, Ecclesiastes 8:12. Manasseh had the longest reign of any king of Judah. Pope John XXII held the mortality of the soul, and was otherwise erroneous and vicious, yet he lived longest of any pope, and died richest, A. D. 1335; howbeit he died tempore non sua, too soon for himself, Ecclesiastes 7:17; he went not to his grave in a good old age, ripe and ready. As a shock of corn cometh in in his season] As grian when ripe is reaped, shocked up, and carried into the barn for the master’ s use. Dei frumentum ego sum, I am God’ s bread grain, said that ancient martyr.

(26) Thou shalt come to thy grave.—There is not improbably a contrast implied here between going into the grave and going up (see the margin) to the barn. The grave in such a case is not the melancholy end of life, but rather the passage to a higher life for which one is already ripe. “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,” &c. (2 Timothy 4:8).

Verse 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave] Thou shalt not die before thy time; thou shalt depart from life like a full-fed guest; happy in what thou hast known, and in what thou hast enjoyed. Like as a shock of corn] Thou shalt completely run through the round of the spring, summer, autumn, and winter of life; and thou shalt be buried like a wholesome seed in the earth; from which thou shalt again rise up into an eternal spring!

26. And finally he shall receive the crowning blessing of man on earth, to live long and die old and full of years; cf. Psalms 102:24; Isaiah 38:10; Numbers 23:10. The Speaker’s Comm. quotes the following from Milton, So mayest thou live, till, like ripe fruits, thou drop Into thy mother’s lap; or be with ease Gathered, not harshly plucked; for death mature. The speech of Eliphaz is one of the masterpieces of the Book. The surprising literary skill of the Author is hardly anywhere so conspicuous. (See remark at the end of ch. 4) Nevertheless, if we follow the clue which the Author himself puts into our hand in the reply which he causes Job to make, we must infer that Eliphaz erred in two particulars. If his religious tone was not too lofty, it was at least too cold, and too little tempered with compassion for the sufferings of men. The moral impropriety of Job’s murmurs and despair so engrosses his mind that he forgets the unbearable misery of the sufferer before him, and the just claims of sentient life not to be put to the torture. The consequence is that he will have to hear from Job language still more shocking to his religious feeling (ch. Job 7:17 seq.). This error was due to another, his theory of suffering (see preliminary remarks to ch. 4–14). This theory gave a full explanation to his mind of Job’s afflictions and compelled him to take the tone towards him which he did. However true his theory might be as a general principle of moral government, it was not universal and did not include Job’s case. Job’s conscience told him this. Hence the admonitions of Eliphaz fell wide of the mark, and he only aggravated the evil which he sought to heal.

Thou shalt come to thy grave in full age - That is, thou shalt have long life; thou shalt not be cut down prematurely, nor by any sudden calamity.

26. Like as a shock of corn cometh — Literally, Like the going up of a heap of sheaves.