Job 4:19

How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
less	אַ֤ף 'af	H637	meaning accession (used as an adverb or conjunction) · interjection
dwell	שֹׁכְנֵ֬י sho.khe.Nei	H7931	to reside or permanently stay (literally or figurativel… · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
houses	בָֽתֵּי va.tei-	H1004	a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine plural construct
clay	חֹ֗מֶר Cho.mer	H2563	properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
foundation	יְסוֹדָ֑ם ye.so.Dam	H3247	a foundation (literally or figuratively) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
dust	בֶּעָפָ֥ר be.'a.Far	H6083	dust (as powdered or gray) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
crushed	יְ֝דַכְּא֗וּם ye.da.ke.'Um	H1792	to crumble · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
before	לִפְנֵי lif.nei-	H6440	the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
moth	עָֽשׁ 'Ash	H6211	a moth · 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 10:9 Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
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 33:6 Behold, I am according to thy wish in God’s stead: I also am formed out of the clay.
Genesis 18:27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:
Job 13:12 Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.
Job 13:28 And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.
Psalms 39:11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 4:12–end

Eliphaz, having undertaken to convince Job of the sin and folly of his discontent and impatience, here vouches a vision he had been favoured with, which he relates to Job for his conviction. What comes immediately from God all men will pay a particular deference to, and Job, no doubt, as much as any. Some think Eliphaz had this vision now lately, since he came to Job, putting words into his mouth wherewith to reason with him; and it would have been well if he had kept to the purport of this vision, which would serve for a ground on which to reprove Job for his murmuring, but not to condemn him as a hypocrite. Others think he had it formerly; for God did, in this way, often communicate his mi…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 4:19

houses of clay-- (Co2 5:1). Houses made of sun-dried clay bricks are common in the East; they are easily washed away (Mat 7:27). Man's foundation is this dust (Gen 3:19). before the moth--rather, "as before the moth," which devours a garment (Job 13:28; Psa 39:11; Isa 50:9). Man, who cannot, in a physical point of view, stand before the very moth, surely cannot, in a moral, stand before God.

John Gill on Job 4:19

How much less on them that dwell in houses of clay,.... Meaning men, but not as dwelling in houses, in a proper sense, made of clay dried by the sun, as were common in the eastern countries; nor in mean cottages, as distinguished from cedar, and ceiled houses, in which great personages dwelt, for this respects men in common; nor as being in the houses of the grave, as the Targum, Jarchi, and others, which are no other than dust, dirt, and clay; for this regards not the dead, but the living; but the bodies of men are meant; in which their souls dwell; which shows the superior excellency of the soul to the body, and its independency of it, being capable of existing without it, as it does in th…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Job 4:17–end

The Church Fathers

"Those who dwell in houses of mud," whose conversation is not in heaven. "He hit them as if they were eaten by worms. Or some disease has gnawed at them like worms; or God himself has condemned them to be eaten by worms, or. lastly, their culpable voluptuousness has given rise in themselves to a germ of corruption which has bitten them little by little; it's because they lived in a mud house.
— Augustine of Hippo, ANNOTATIONS ON THE BOOK OF JOB (tr. J. Litteral, draft)

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Eliphaz — God his strength. (1.) One of Job’s “three friends” who visited him in his affliction (4:1). He was a “Temanite”, i.e., a native of Teman, in Idumea. He first enters into debate with Job. His…
Moth — Heb. ‘ash, from a root meaning “to fall away,” as moth-eaten garments fall to pieces (Job 4:19; 13:28; Isa. 50:9; 51:8; Hos. 5:12). Gr. ses, thus rendered in Matt. 6:19, 20; Luke 12:33. Allusion is…
Body · HOUSE OF CLAY — HOUSE OF CLAY
Clay · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Condescension Of God · 45:11; — 45:11;
Depravity Of Man · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dream · .Of Eliphaz, of a spirit speaking to him — .Of Eliphaz, of a spirit speaking to him
Ground · Man ma — Man ma
Houses · Built of: Clay — Built of: Clay
Immortality · 2:11; — 2:11;
Insects · Mentioned in scripture: Moth — Mentioned in scripture: Moth
Life · BREVITY AND UNCERTAINTY OF — BREVITY AND UNCERTAINTY OF
Love · 22:37,38; — 22:37,38;
Man · INSIGNIFI

Job 4:19

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 4:12–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 4:19

John Gill on Job 4:19

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 4:17–end

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Job 4:19

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 4:12–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 4:19

John Gill on Job 4:19

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 4:17–end

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Job 4:18-21

Rashi on Job 4:19