Matthew Poole and continuators on Job 4:21

21. Doth not their excellency which is in them, go away i? they die even without Wisdom .

Whatsoever is really or by common estimation excellent in men, all their natural, & moral, & civil accomplishments ashigh birth. great riches, power and wisdom &c. These are sofar from preserving men from perishing, as one would think they should do, that they perish themselves together with those houses of clay in which they are lodged. Or. go away (i. e. die and perish as that phrase is oft used, as Gen. 15. 15 Ios. 23. 14 Iob 10. 21. Psal. 58. 9. Eccles. 12. 5. Mat. 26. 24.) with (as Beth is oft used) them: it doth not survive them

Either 1. Like fools. Wise men and fools die alike, Eccles. 2. 16. Or 2. they never attain to perfect wisdom, to that wisdom which man once had, much less to that wisdom which is in God, which Iob conceiteth he hath; otherwise he would not so boldly censure the counsels and works of God as unrighteous or unreasonable, because his humane and narrow capacity cannot fully understand them. Moreover, as folly is oft put for unrighteousness and wickedness; so is wisdom for justice and goodness; which is so known, that it is needless to prove it; and so by wisdom here may be meant that perfect justice and purity, which Iob arrogated to himself, and which Eliphaz here denies to all men, v. 17, &c.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] 39. 11. [illegible: 1 word]. 14.; [illegible: 1 word]. 36. 12.