Thou shalt come to [thy] grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in in his season.
Ver. 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age] In a good old age, or (as the Hebrew hath it, Gen 25:8) with a good hoar head, in an ευγηρια, when thou hast even a satiety of life, and art as willing to die as ever thou wast to dine, or to rise from table after a full meal. The Hebrews made a feast when they were past 60 years of age; and some of them observe that the numeral letters of Chelach (the word here used) make up sixty, but that is not a full old age; rather it is the beginning of it. Thou shalt die in lusty old age, so Broughton rendereth it, old, and yet healthy and comfortable, as was Moses, Deuteronomy 34:7; and Mr Dod, that Moses of our times. Of Mr Samuel Crook likewise it is recorded (in his Life by W. G.), that when he saw no more ability for labours he desired to die in a satiety and fulness of life; not as a meat loathed (as many times natural men do), but as a dish, though well liked, that he had fed his full of; few men having ever run so long a race without cessation or cespitation, so constantly, so unweariably, so unblameably. Lo, such a hoary head was a crown of glory, as being found in the way of righteousness, Proverbs 16:31. But so are not all that yet are long lived. A sinner may do evil a hundred times, and yet have his days prolonged, Ecclesiastes 8:12. Manasseh had the longest reign of any king of Judah. Pope John XXII held the mortality of the soul, and was otherwise erroneous and vicious, yet he lived longest of any pope, and died richest, A. D. 1335; howbeit he died tempore non sua, too soon for himself, Ecclesiastes 7:17; he went not to his grave in a good old age, ripe and ready.
As a shock of corn cometh in in his season] As grian when ripe is reaped, shocked up, and carried into the barn for the master's use. Dei frumentum ego sum, I am God's bread grain, said that ancient martyr.