Job 24:19

19 The grave consumes sinners just as drought and heat consume snow.

Job 24:19 Meaning and Commentary

Job 24:19

Drought and heat consume the snow waters
Melt the snow into water, and dry up that, which is done easily, quickly, and suddenly:

[so doth] the grave [those which] have sinned;
all have sinned, but some are more notorious sinners than others, as those here meant; and all die and are laid in the grave, and are consumed; hence the grave is called the pit of corruption and destruction, because bodies are corrupted and destroyed in it, and which is the case of all, both good and bad men; but the metaphor here used to express it by, of the consumption of snow water by drought and heat, denotes either that the death of these persons is sudden and violent, and in such a manner are brought to the grave, consumed there; that they die a sudden death, and before their time, and do not live out half the days, which, according to the course of nature, they might have lived, or it was expected by them and others they would; whereas they are "snatched away", as the word signifies, as suddenly and violently as snow waters are by the drought and heat; or else that their death is quick, quiet, and easy, as snow is quickly dissolved, and the water as soon and as easily dried up by the drought and heat; they do not lie long under torturing diseases, but are at once taken away, and scarce feel any pain; they die in their full strength, wholly at ease and quiet; which sense well answers Job's scope and design, see ( Job 21:23 ) ( Psalms 73:4 ) . Some render the words, "in the drought and heat they rob, and in the snow waters" F26; that is, they rob at all times and seasons of the year, summer and winter; and this is their constant trade and employ; they are always at it, let the weather be what it will: and "they sin unto the grave", or "hell" F1; they continue in their wicked course of life as long as they live, until they are brought to the grave; they live and die in sin.


FOOTNOTES:

F26 (b) "deficit"; so some in Simeon, Bar Tzemach.
F1 (wajx lwav) "ad infernum usque peccarunt", Schmidt; "usque ad sepulchrum", Mercerus; some in Drusius.

Job 24:19 In-Context

17 The black night is their morning. They ally themselves with the terrors of the darkness.
18 “But they disappear like foam down a river. Everything they own is cursed, and they are afraid to enter their own vineyards.
19 The grave consumes sinners just as drought and heat consume snow.
20 Their own mothers will forget them. Maggots will find them sweet to eat. No one will remember them. Wicked people are broken like a tree in the storm.
21 They cheat the woman who has no son to help her. They refuse to help the needy widow.

Footnotes 1

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