to pluck · verb, pual perfect, 3rd person common plural
time
עֵ֑ת'Et
H6256
time · noun, common both genders singular absolute
foundation
יְסוֹדָֽםye.so.Dam
H3247
a foundation (literally or figuratively) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
overflown
יוּצַ֥קyu.Tzak
H3332
properly · verb, hophal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
flood
נָ֝הָ֗רna.Har
H5104
a stream (including the sea · noun, common masculine singular absolute
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
Job 15:32 It shall be accomplished before his time, and his branch shall not be green.
Genesis 7:17-24 And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.
Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the…
Psalms 55:23 But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will…
Matthew 24:37-39 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
1 Peter 3:19-20 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
2 Peter 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ung…
Job 14:19 The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 22:15-20
Eliphaz, having endeavoured to convict Job, by setting his sins (as he thought) in order before him, here endeavours to awaken him to a sight and sense of his misery and danger by reason of sin; and this he does by comparing his case with that of the sinners of the old world; as if he had said, "Thy condition is bad now, but, unless thou repent, it will be worse, as theirs was - theirs who were overflown with a flood, as the old world (Job 22:16), and theirs the remnant of whom the fire consumed" (Job 22:20), namely, the Sodomites, who, in comparison of the old world, were but a remnant. And these two instances of the wrath of God against sin and sinners are more than once put together, for…
cut down--rather, "fettered," as in Job 16:8; that is, arrested by death.
out of time--prematurely, suddenly (Job 15:32; Ecc 7:17); literally, "whose foundation was poured out (so as to become) a stream or flood." The solid earth passed from beneath their feet into a flood (Gen 7:11).
John Gill on Job 22:16
Which were cut down out of time,.... Sent out of time into eternity, time being no more with men, and they no longer in time, when death seizes upon them; or "before time" (a), before the common term of life, which, according to the course of nature, and human probability, they might have arrived unto: as this is spoken of the men of the old world that lived before the flood, when the lives of men were very long, it is highly probable there, were many that were destroyed by the general deluge, who, had it not for that, might have lived many hundreds of years, according to the usual course: or "without time" (b), without any delay suddenly, at once, at an unawares; for, though they had notice…
15 Wilt thou observe the way of the ancient world,
Which evil men have trodden,
16 Who were withered up before their time,
Their foundation was poured out as a stream,
17 Who said unto God: Depart from us!
And what can the Almighty do to them?
18 And notwithstanding He had filled their houses with good-
The counsel of the wicked be far from me!
While in Psa 139:24 דרך עולם prospectively signifies a way of eternal duration (comp. Eze 26:20, עם עולם, of the people who sleep the interminably long sleep of the grave), ארח עולם signifies here retrospectively the way of the ancient world, but not, as in Jer 6:16; Jer 18:15, the way of thinking and acting of the pious forefathers which put their po…
The Church Fathers
"They were swept away before the time. Before time, according to their way of seeing, because they believed to remain forever. Or better, before reaching true wisdom. Job's friends had heard this, but they did not think so.
Which were taken away before their time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood. Whereas the period of our life is assuredly foreordained for us in the foreknowledge of God, it is a very important question on what principle it is said now, that the wicked are withdrawn from the present world 'before their time.' For Almighty God though He often change His sentence, yet His counsel never. At that time, then, is every man 'taken away' from this life, at which by Divine power he is foreknown to be before all times. But it is necessary to be known, that Almighty God in creating and disposing of us, according to the deserts of each one also appoints his bounds too, so that either that bad man should live a short time, lest he do mischief to numbers doing right; or that this good man should last longer in life, that he may prove a helper of good practice to numbers; or again that the bad man should be detained longer in life, to add yet more to his wicked deeds, purified by the testing whereof the righteous may live a truer life; or that the good man should be withdrawn more speedily, lest if he were to live long here, wickedness should spoil his innocence. Yet it is to be borne in mind, that it is the loving-kindness of God, to vouchsafe to sinners space for repentance. But because the times vouchsafed they do not turn to the fruits of penance, but to the service of iniquity, what by the mercifulness of God they might have obtained, they let go out of their hands. Although Almighty God foreknows that time of each individual for death, at which his life is brought to an end; nor could any one ever have died at any time, saving at that actual time when he does die. For if to Hezekiah fifteen years are related to have been added for life, the time of his life was increased from that end, indeed, in which of himself he deserved to die; for God's providence foreknew his time at that point whereat He afterwards withdrew him out of the present life. This then being so, what does it mean that it is said, that the wicked were cut down before their time, but that all they that love the present life, promise to themselves longer periods of that life? But when death coming on withdraws them from the present life, the spaces of their life, which they were wont as it were in imagination to draw out to themselves longer, it cuts asunder. Of whom it is rightly said, whose…
Dictionary and topics
Antediluvians · General references — General references
Deluge, The · Traditional notice of — Traditional notice of
Flood · References to — References to
Time · The duration of the world — The duration of the world
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).
That’s why: Job had not claimed that God can’t see, but others have (Pss 10:11; 73:11; 94:7).
Rashi on Job 22:16
Who were cut off when it was not their time They were cut off before their time.
a river And the river of the Flood or the brimstone and fire of Sodom was poured into their foundation.
