Matthew Poole and continuators on Job 4:19

19. How much less on them that dwell in Houses of Clay, a whose Foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the Moth?

Understand, doth he put trust in them, &c. Or, How much more, understand, doth he charge folly on them, &c. Either of these supplements are natural and easie, being fetched out of the former Verse, and necessary to make the sense compleat. The sense is, what strange presumption then is it for a foolish and mortal man to pretend to an higher Priviledge than the Angels do, to make himself more just than God, or to exalt himself above or against God, as thou dost?

i. e. On men, as it follows, who thought they have immortal Spirits, yet those Spirits dwell in mortal Bodies, which are great Debasements, and Clogs, and Encumbrances, and Snares to them; and which are here called Houses, (because they are the Receptacles of the Soul, and the places of its settled and continual abode) and Houses of Clay, and Earthly Houses, 2 Cor. 5. 1. partly because they were made of Clay, or Earth, Gen. 2. 7. 1 Cor. 15. 47. and partly to note their great frailty and mutability; whereas the Angels are free Spirits, unconfined to such Carkasses, and dwell in celestial, and glorious, and everlasting Mansions.

Whose very Foundation, no less than the rest of the Building, is in the dust; who as they dwell in Dust and Clay, so they had their Foundation or Original from it, and they must return to it, Eccles. 12. 7. And, as to their Bodies, lie down and sleep in it, Dan. 12. 2. as in his long home, Eccles. 12. 5. and the only continuing City which he hath in this World.

Heb. they crush them, i. e. they are or will be crushed. The Active Verb used Impersonally, as it is Ch. 7. 3. and 34. 20. Prov. 6. 30. Luk. 12. 20.

i. e. Sooner than a Moth is crushed, which is easily done by a Gentle touch of the Fingers. An Hyperbolical Expression. So the Hebrew word, liphne, commonly signifying place, doth here note time, as it is used, Gen. 27. 7. and 29. 26. and 36. 31. Or, at the face or appearance of a Moth. No Creature is so weak and contemptible, but one time or other it may have the Body of Man in its power, as the Worms, the Moths Cousin-Germans, have in the Grave. But he instanceth in a Moth rather than a Worm, because it is the weaker of the two, and because it better agrees with the similitude of an House, in which Moths commonly are more frequent, and powerful, and mischievous, than Worms. How then canst thou think, O Iob, to contend with thy Maker, that must become a Prey to such small and impotent Creatures?

Marginal references: 2 Cor. 5. 1.