The small and the great are there - The old and the young, the high and the low. Death levels all. It shows no respect to age; it spares none because they are vigorous, young, or beautiful. This sentiment has probably been expressed in various forms in all languages, for all people are made deeply sensible of its truth. The Classic reader will recall the ancient proverb,
Mors sceptra ligonibus aequat,
And the language of Horace:
Aequae lege Necessitas
Sortitur insignes et imos.
Omne capax movet urna nomen.
Tristis unda scilicet omnibus,
Quicunque terrae munere vescimur,
Enaviganda, sive reges,
Sive inopes erimus coloni.
Divesne prisco natus ab lnacho
Nil interest, an pauper et infima
De gente sub dio moreris
Victima nil miserantis Orci.
Omnes codem cogimur. Omnium
Versatur urna. Serius, ocyus,
Sors exitura.
- Omnes una manet nox,
Et calcauda semel via leti. (Nullum)
Mista senum acjuvenum densantur funera.
Saeva caput Proserpina lugit. (tabernas)
Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum
Regumque turres.
And the servant is free from his master - Slavery is at an end in the grave. The master can no longer tax the powers of the slave, can no longer scourge him or exact his uncompensated toil. Slavery early existed, and there is evidence here that it was known in the time of Job. But Job did not regard it as a desirable institution; for assuredly that is not desirable from which death would be regarded as a “release,” or where death would be preferable. Men often talk about slavery as a valuable condition of society, and sometimes appeal even to the Scriptures to sustain it; but Job felt that “it was worse than death,” and that the grave was to be preferred because there the slave would be free from his master. The word used here and rendered “free” (חפשׁי chophshı̂y) properly expresses manumission from slavery. See it explained at length in my the notes at Isaiah 58:6.