So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. So man lieth down - He falls asleep in his bed of earth.
And riseth not - Men shall not, like cut down trees and plants, reproduce their like; nor shall they arise till the heavens are no more, till the earth and all its works are burnt up, and the general resurrection of human beings shall take place. Surely it would be difficult to twist this passage to the denial of the resurrection of the body. Neither can these expressions be fairly understood as implying Job's belief in the materiality of the soul, and that the whole man sleeps from the day of his death to the morning of the resurrection. We have already seen that Job makes a distinction between the animal life and rational soul in man; and it is most certain that the doctrine of the materiality of the soul, and its sleep till the resurrection, has no place in the sacred records. There is a most beautiful passage to the same purpose, and with the same imagery, in Moschus's epitaph on the death of Bion: -
Αι, αι ται μαλαχαι μεν επαν κατα καπον ολωνται,
Η τα χλωρα σελινα, το τ' ευθαλες ουλον ανηθον,
Ὑστερον αυ ζωοντι, και εις ετος αλλο φυοντι·
Αμμες δ', οἱ μεγαλοι, και καρτεροι, η σοφοι ανδρες,
Ὁπποτε πρωτα θανωμες, ανακοοι εν χθονι κοιλα
Εὑδομες ευ μαλα μακρον, ατερμονα, νηγρετον ὑπνον.
Idyll. iii., ver. 100.
Alas! alas! the mallows, when they die,
Or garden herbs, and sweet Anethum's pride,
Blooming in vigor, wake again to life,
And flourish beauteous through another year:
But we, the great, the mighty, and the wise,
When once we die, unknown in earth's dark womb
Sleep long and drear, the endless sleep of death.
J. B. B. C.
A more cold and comfortless philosophy was never invented. The next verse shows that Job did not entertain this view of the subject.