His sons come to honour, and he knoweth [it] not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth [it] not of them.
Ver. 21. His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not] While he lieth sick, he regardeth no earthly thing, no, not what becometh of his children (formerly his greatest care), whether they be advanced or impaired in their outward condition, Omnis hi Ascanio churi stat cura parentis (Vir.). As when he is dead he can take no knowledge of anything done in this world, Isa 63:16 Ecclesiastes 2:19; Ecclesiastes 9:6, be his children or friends rich or poor, high or low, he is both ignorant and insensible. It was a base slander, published by a Jesuit, some years after Queen Elizabeth's death, That as she died without sense or feeling of God's mercies, so that she wished she might after her death hang a while in the air, to see what striving would be for her kingdom. As for that opinion of some Papists, That the dead do sometimes return into the land of the living, that they know how things go here, and make report thereof to those in heaven, it is contrary to the whole Scripture.