They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding [it].
Ver. 20. They are destroyed from morning to evening] Heb. They are beaten to pieces, as in a mortar, with one sorrow upon another, till the very breath be beaten out of their bodies at length; and all this from morning to evening, all the day long, or all their life long, which is here set forth (for the brevity of it) by an artificial day, and such also as no man can be sure he shall have twelve hours to his day (Per totum diem, through the entire day, Drus.), for how many are there whose sun hath set at high noon! in the prime and pride of their days have they been suddenly snatched away by the hand of death; yea, how many see we whose sun setteth in the very rising, so that they are carried from the birth to the burial! Every hour, surely, we all yield somewhat unto death, and a very short cut hath the longest liver of all, from the grave of the womb to the womb of the grave. Eliphaz here seemeth to compare us to those creatures called Ephemerobii, which are young in the morning, middle aged at noon, and dead ere night; they begin and end their lives in a day (Aristot.). Man's life is a vapour, saith St James, a bubble, say the heathens, a blast, a dream, a shadow, a dream of a shadow, &c.
They perish for ever] That is, they die once for all. For "if a man die, shall he live again?" Job 14:14. No such matter. In this war, as there is no discharge, Ecclesiastes 8:8, so neither is it granted to any man to err twice; therefore Austin said that he would not for the gain of a million worlds be an atheist for half an hour; because he knew not but God might in that time call for him, and cut him off from all time of repentance, acceptation, and grace for ever, since he could die but once only, and after death judgment: every man's death's day is his doom's day, Hebrews 9:27 .
Without any regarding it] Heb. Putting, sc. his heart to it, or laying it upon his heart, as every man living should do, Ecclesiastes 7:2, but that few or none so do, see Isaiah 57:1. David did, when hearing of his child's decease, he said, "I shall go to him," 2 Samuel 12:23. And Moses, seeing the people's carcases fall so fast in the wilderness, prayed for himself and the rest, "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom," Psalms 90:12. Every dead corpse is a monitor, a dumb preacher, Etiam muta clamant cadavera. Abel, though dead, speaketh; but how few hearken to him! Dives thought that if one came from the dead to forewarn his brethren, great matters would be done. Petrus Sutorius telleth of one that, preaching a funeral sermon on a religious man, as he calleth him, and giving him large commendations, heard at the same time a voice in the church, Mortuus sum, iudicatus sum, damnatus sum, I am dead, I am judged, I am damned (Pet. Sutor. de Vita Carth.). This very much wrought upon the heart of Bruno, saith he, and occasioned him to found the Carthusian order. Waldus, a French merchant, was so affected with the death of one that died suddenly in his presence, that he thenceforth became a right godly man, and the father of the Waldenses, those ancient Protestants in France, called also, The poor men of Lyons. But oh, the dead lethargy, the spirit of fornication, that hath so besotted the minds of the most, that they can see death, and yet not think of it! They can look into the dark chamber of the grave, and never make the least preparation for it: if for present they be somewhat affected, and have some good impressions, yet they soon vanish; as the water, circled by a stone cast into it, soon returns to its former smoothness; as chickens run under the wings of the hen, while the kite is over them, or in a storm, but soon after get abroad again, and dust themselves in the sun. As Nebuchadnezzar had seen a vision, but it was gone from him; so here, if men at the house of mourning have some good motions, they improve them not to resolutions, or draw not forth their resolutions into executions, &c.