a number · noun, common masculine singular absolute
before
וּ֝לְפָנָ֗יוu.le.fa.Nav
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · conjunction + preposition + noun, common masculine plural 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
Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Job 24:24 They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of th…
Job 30:23 For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.
Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto…
Job 3:17-19 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.
Job 3:22 Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
Job 17:16 They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.
Ecclesiastes 1:4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 21:27–end
In these verses,
I. Job opposes the opinion of his friends, which he saw they still adhered to, that the wicked are sure to fall into such visible and remarkable ruin as Job had now fallen into, and none but the wicked, upon which principle they condemned Job as a wicked man. "I know your thoughts," says Job (Job 21:27); "I know you will not agree with me; for your judgments are tinctured and biassed by your piques and prejudices against me, and the devices which you wrongfully imagine against my comfort and honour: and how can such men be convinced?" Job's friends were ready to say, in answer to his discourse concerning the prosperity of the wicked, "Where is the house of the prince? Job 21…
As the classic saying has it, "The earth is light upon him." His repose shall be "sweet."
draw--follow. He shall share the common lot of mortals; no worse off than they (Heb 9:27). UMBREIT not so well (for it is not true of "every man"). "Most men follow in his bad steps, as countless such preceded him."
John Gill on Job 21:33
The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him,.... Where he lies interred, alluding to places of interment at the bottom of hills, and mountains, and under rocks, in plains and vales, see Genesis 35:8; and by this strong figure is signified, that the dead wicked man, lying in the clods of the valley in his grave, is in great repose, and in the utmost ease and quiet, feels no pains of body, nor has any uneasiness of mind concerning what befalls his posterity after his death, Job 14:21;
and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him; which either respects the pomp at his funeral procession, vast numbers being drawn and gathered together to gaze at it, as is common a…
32 And he is brought to the grave,
And over the tomb he still keepeth watch.
33 The clods of the valley are sweet to him,
And all men draw after him,
As they preceded him without number.
. . . . . .
34 And how will ye comfort me so vainly!
Your replies are and remain perfidy.
During life removed at the time of dire calamity, this unapproachable evil-doer is after his death carried to the grave with all honour (יוּבל, comp. Job 10:19), and indeed to a splendid tomb; for, like משׁכנות above, קברות is also an amplificative plural. It is certainly the most natural to refer ישׁקד, like יוּבל, to the deceased. The explanation: and over the tomb one keeps watch (Bttch., Hahn, Rd., Olsh.), is indeed…
The Church Fathers
Ver. 33. He was sweet to the pebbles of Cocytus. 71. 'Cocytus' in the Greek tongue is the term for 'lamentation,' which is used to be taken for the lamentation of women, or any persons going weakly. Now the wise of this world being shut out from the light of truth, endeavoured by making search to hold a kind of shadows of truth. Hence they thought that the river Cocytus ran amongst the dead below, clearly denoting that they that commit deeds worthy of painful inflictions, run to an end into hell unto lamentation. But for ourselves let us make little of the shadow of carnal wisdom, who now hold the light relating to the truth, and let us see that in the utterance of the holy man 'Cocytus' means the lamentation of the weak sort. For it is written, Be of good courage, and let your heart be strengthened. [Ps. 31, 24] For they who refuse to be 'strengthened' in God, are going the way to lamentation through weakness of the mind. Now we are used to call by the name of pebbles the little stones of rivers, which the water in running away carries along with it. What then is denoted by the pebbles of Cocytus, but the lost, who, being devoted to their gratifications, are as it were ever being dragged by the river down to the lowest depth. For they that refuse to stand strong and stedfast against the pleasures of this life, become 'pebbles of Cocytus,' who by their slippings day by day are going the way to lamentation, that they may hereafter mourn for everlasting, who now indulgently give themselves a loose in their pleasures. And whereas our old enemy, having entered into his vessel, that son of perdition, whilst he bestows gifts on the wicked, whilst he exalts them with honours in this world, whilst he exhibits marvels to their eyes, has all drifting souls admiring and following him in his marvels, it is said well of him here, He was sweet to the pebbles of Cocytus. For whilst the Elect despise him, whilst they spurn him with the foot of the mind, those love while they follow him, who are as it were drawn by the water of pleasure to everlasting lamentation, who from earthly concupiscence roll down to the lowest depth like gravel, by slippings day by day. For to some he proffers the taste of his sweetness through pride, to others through avarice; to one set by envy, to another by deceitfulness, and to another by lust, and for all the kinds of evil that he forces men…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
the earth gives sweet repose: Job viewed death as a relief (3:17-18).
Rashi on Job 21:33
clods balast in French (which the sailors bring into the holds of the ships in order to weigh them down.)
as there were innumerable ones before him Those who draw after the same way. All these devices you think against me.
