So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens [be] no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
Ver. 12. So man lieth down] sc. In the dust of death, or in the bed of the grave; his dormitory, till the last day.
Ut somnus morris, sic lectus imago sepulchri.
And riseth not] sc. To live again among men. So, Psalms 78:39, man is compared to a wind, which, when it is past, returneth not again. If it be objected, that we read of three in the Old Testament, and five in the New, raised from death to life; besides those many that arose and came out of the graves after Christ's resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many, Matthew 27:52,53; it is answered, 1. These few raised by God's extraordinary power do not infringe the truth of what the Scripture here and elsewhere affirmeth of all mankind according to the ordinary course of nature. 2. Even those men also afterwards died again, and vanished, no more to return or appear again in this world.
Till the heavens be no more] i.e. Never (say some interpreters), to wit, vi sua, by his own strength, and to a better condition in the land of the living; so the word "until" is used, 2Sa 6:13 Matthew 5:26; Matthew 1:25, ut pie credimus. How sound and clear Job was in the point of the resurrection we shall see, Job 19:26, and because he falls upon it in the words next following here, some understand these words thus: They shall not rise till the general resurrections, when these heavens shall be changed and renewed, Psa 102:25-26 Isaiah 65:17 2Pe 3:7; 2Pe 3:10-11 Revelation 21:1 .
They shall not awake] Out of the sleep of death;
nor be raised] viz. By the sound of the last trump, till the last day. But raised they shall be, and sleep no more, viz. when the heavens shall be no more. And till that time the bodies of the saints are laid in the grave, as in a bed of down, or of spices, to mellow and ripen. This is matter of joy and triumph, Isa 26:19 Daniel 12:2, when they were to lose all: so Hebrews 11:35. The wicked also sleep in the grave, Daniel 12:2, but shall awake to everlasting shame and contempt, ib.; their sick sleep shall have a woeful waking, for they shall be raised by virtue of Christ's judiciary power, and by the curse of the law, to look upon him whom they have pierced, and to hear from him that dreadful Discedite, "Depart, ye cursed," &c.