a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figurative… · noun, common masculine singular absolute
falling
נוֹפֵ֣לno.Fel
H5307
to fall · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
nought
יִבּ֑וֹלyi.Bol
H5034
to wilt · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
rock
וְ֝צ֗וּרve.Tzur
H6697
properly · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
removed
יֶעְתַּ֥קye'.Tak
H6275
to remove (intransitive or transitive) figuratively · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
place
מִמְּקֹמֽוֹmi.me.ko.Mo
H4725
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Revelation 6:14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
Job 18:4 He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?
Jeremiah 4:24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
Psalms 102:25-26 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
Isaiah 40:12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a meas…
Isaiah 41:15-16 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make…
Isaiah 54:10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace…
Isaiah 64:1 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 14:16–end
Job here returns to his complaints; and, though he is not without hope of future bliss, he finds it very hard to get over his present grievances.
I. He complains of the particular hardships he apprehended himself under from the strictness of God's justice, Job 14:16, Job 14:17. Therefore he longed to go hence to that world where God's wrath will be past, because now he was under the continual tokens of it, as a child, under the severe discipline of the rod, longs to be of age. "When shall my change come? For now thou seemest to me to number my steps, and watch over my sin, and seal it up in a bag, as bills of indictment are kept safely, to be produced against the prisoner." See Deu 32:34. "T…
cometh to naught--literally, "fadeth"; a poetical image from a leaf (Isa 34:4). Here Job falls back into his gloomy bodings as to the grave. Instead of "and surely," translate "yet"; marking the transition from his brighter hopes. Even the solid mountain falls and crumbles away; man therefore cannot "hope" to escape decay or to live again in the present world (Job 14:19).
out of his place--so man (Psa 103:16).
John Gill on Job 14:18
And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought,.... Job here returns to his former subject of the irreparable state of man at death, which he illustrates by various other similes, as before; and first by a "mountain falling", which may be supposed, and has been fact, and when it does, it "comes to nought"; it crumbles into dust, and where it falls there it lies, and never rises up to a mountain, or to the height it had, any more; or it "withers" (n), as some render it, the plants, herbs, and trees that grow upon it, wither away, see Nahum 1:4; or "it is dissolved", or "flows" (o), and spreads itself over the face of the green earth it covers, and destroys with its dust and sand, which is n…
"The mountain sinks, and disappears. Thus man falls, so high up, so firm as he is. "And the rock is getting old, at the very place it occupies. Like the man in his family, in the rank where he is.
Ver. 18, 19. And surely the mountain falling slippeth away, and the rock is removed out of his place. The waters wear the stones, and by washing little by little the earth is consumed, and so Thou wilt in a like way destroy man. MORAL INTERPRETATION This is very often the case, that upon rocks falling, a piece of rock is removed to other places; that waters wear stones, and little by little the ground is wasted by the washings of the flood: but we have need to make out with great diligence that which is brought in; and man Thou wilt in a like way destroy. For what is that, that to a mountain falling, a rock removed, a stone worn hollow, and ground consumed by the washing of the flood, the ruin of man is likened, but this, which we are plainly given to understand, that there are two sorts of temptations, one sort, which passes in the mind even of the good man by sudden accident, that he should be so tempted of a sudden, that by the unexpectedness of the event it should make him reel, and bring him to the ground, and that he does not see his falling, until after he has fallen; while there is another which comes by little and little into the mind, and by gentle suggestions corrupts the resisting soul, and not by its excessiveness but by its importunity wastes all the powers of righteousness therein? And so, whereas there is one sort of temptation, which by a sudden assault very often brings the good down to the ground, let it be said, And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place, i.e. the holy mind, whose place was righteousness, is by a sudden impulse removed into sin. Again, because there is another sort of temptation, which infuses itself gently into the heart of man, and wears and wastes all the hardness of its resolution, let it be said, The waters wear the stones; in this way, viz. that the unremitted and soft flatteries of lust suck away the hardness of the soul, and the slow and penetrating evil habit corrodes the hard and forcible purpose of the mind. Hence it is added, And by washing the ground is consumed little by little. For as when water flows in, 'the ground is consumed little by little,' so when bad habit creeps on by gentle degrees, even the strong mind is engulphed. Hence it is well added, And Thou wilt in a like way destroy man, i.e. in this way, that when Thou by a righteous appointment…
Dictionary and topics
Mountain · Overturning and removing of — Overturning and removing of
Rocks · God’s power exhibited in removing — God’s power exhibited in removing
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag,
And Thou hast devised additions to my iniquity.
18 But a falling mountain moveth indeed,
And a rock falleth from its place.
19 Water holloweth out stone,
Its overflowings carry away the dust of the earth,
And the hope of man - Thou destroyest.
The meaning of Job 14:17 is, not that the judgment which pronounces him guilty lies in the sealed-up bag of the judge, so that it requires only to be handed over for execution (Hirz., Ew., Renan), for although פּשׁע (though not exactly the punishment of sin, which it does not signify even in Dan 9:24) can denote wickedness, as proved and recorded, and therefore metonomically the penal sentence, the figure is,…
If sins are sealed in a pouch they do not await a time of reckoning (Deut 32:34-35; Hos 13:12)—they are hidden forever. Job was requesting acquittal.
Rashi on Job 14:18
And surely the falling mountain gives forth produce The height of a falling mountain will give forth produce. It will produce dust, and there will be hope of deriving benefit from it. and the rock that moves from its place will also give forth produce. This is an expression of grain.
