The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow [out] of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.
Ver. 19. The waters wear the stones] Gutta cavat lapidem, &c. The weakest things wear out the hardest by often falling upon them, or continual running over them; so doth God's wrath, though let out minimally, secretly, but surely consume. Hosea 5:12, "I will be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness," or that little worm (teredo) that eats into the heart of wood, and rots it. Thus he plagued the Egyptians by lice and flies. There may be much poison in little drops.
Thou washest away the things that grow out of the earth] Or, Thou overflowest, as once in the general deluge (when the face of the earth was grown so foul, that God was forced to wash it with a flood), and frequently since, we see that after great rains there are huge floods that mar whole meadows and grain fields, not only discolouring, but drowning all their beauty and plenty. This is the fourth comparison used in this and the former verse; where a man would wonder, saith an interpreter, audire Iobum in mediis aerumnis philosophantem, to hear Job, in the midst of his miseries, making use of his philosophy, and travelling thus in his thoughts, for illustrations of his own case, over mountains and rocks, &c.
Thou destroyest the hopes of man] viz. In destroying the things above mentioned; or, so thou destroyest, &c.; though some reserve the reddition to the next verse, so thou prevailest against him, &c., i.e. So thou never ceasest with thy might to cast down sorry men, till such time as they, changing countenance, and departing with a heavy and sorrowful heart, thou violently throwest them out, their lives and hope ending together, if they have been wicked; as if godly, yet their vain and groundless hopes of prosperity and plenty, &c., come to nothing: though over the Red Sea, yet God's people may be made to tack about two and forty times in the wilderness.