For all his days [are] sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.
Ver. 23. For all his days are sorrows, &c.] All the days of the afflicted are evil, Pro 15:15 and every day hath a sufficient evil laid upon it by God. Mat 6:34 "Few and evil" were the days of Jacob's pilgrimage. Gen 47:9 God gave him not a draught only of the cup of affliction, but made him a diet drink. "Man is born to trouble," saith Eliphaz, Job 5:7 "as the sparks fly upward." Man and miserable are in a manner terms convertible. He that remembers that himself is a man, will not think much of any sorrow betides him, saith the heathen orator. a For,
“ Si nisi res cuius nulla est contraria votis
Vivere nemo potest, vivere nemo potest. ”
Yea, his heart taketh no rest in the night. ] As a clock can never stand still so long as the plummets hang thereat, so neither can a worldling's heart for cares and anxieties. These gnats will not suffer him to sleep; these flies of Egypt are continually stinging him, Nocte ac die non dabunt requiem, as those tyrants. Jer 16:13 Night and day he is disquieted with them; he lies upon a pillow stuffed with thorns. Not so the godly man; he contracts his cares into a narrow compass, communes with his own heart upon his bed, and having made all even with God, sleeps undisturbed. Psalms 3:5 ; Psa 4:8 Jacob rests sweetly when his head lay upon a hard stone at Bethel. Ahasuerus cannot rest, though upon a bed of down, but calls for the chronicles. It was wisely done of Burleigh, Lord Treasurer, to put off his cares together with his clothes; when he laid by his gown he would commonly say, Lie there Lord Treasurer, and so quietly compose himself to take his sleep. b "In nothing be careful," saith the apostle, "but let the peace of God guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Php 4:6-7
a O μεμνημενος οτι εστιν ανθρωπος, &c. - Isocr.
b Camden.