to bruise or violently strike · verb, hophal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
morning
מִבֹּ֣קֶרmi.Bo.ker
H1242
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
evening
לָעֶ֣רֶבla.'E.rev
H6153
dusk · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
perish
יֹאבֵֽדוּyo.Ve.du
H6
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
ever
לָנֶ֥צַחla.Ne.tzach
H5331
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
regarding
מֵ֝שִׂ֗יםme.Sim
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, hiphil active participle, 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 20:7 Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
2 Chronicles 15:6 And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity.
2 Chronicles 21:20 Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years, and departed without being desired. Howbeit…
Job 14:2 He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
Job 14:14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
Job 14:20 Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.
Job 16:22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
Job 18:17 His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.
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…
from morning to evening--unceasingly; or, better, between the morning and evening of one short day (so Exo 18:14; Isa 38:12).
They are destroyed--better, "they would be destroyed," if God withdrew His loving protection. Therefore man must not think to be holy before God, but to draw holiness and all things else from God (Job 4:17).
John Gill on Job 4:20
They are destroyed from morning to evening,.... That is, those that dwell in houses of clay, before described; the meaning is, that they are always exposed to death, and liable to it every day they live; not only such who are persecuted for the sake of religion, but all men in common, for of such are both the text and context; who have always the seeds of mortality and death in them, that is continually working in them; and every day, even from morning to evening, are innumerable instances of the power of death over men; and not only some there are, whose sun rises in the morning and sets at evening, who are like grass in the morning, gay, and green, and by evening cut down and withered, liv…
17 Is a mortal just before Eloah,
Or a man pure before his Maker?
18 Behold, He trusteth not His servants!
And His angels He chargeth with imperfection.
19 How much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
They are crushed as though they were moths.
20 From morning until evening, - so are they broken in pieces:
Unobserved they perish for ever.
21 Is it not so: the cord of their tent in them is torn away,
So they die, and not in wisdom?
The question arises whether מן is comparative: prae Deo, on which Mercier with penetration remarks: justior sit oportet qui immerito affligitur quam qui immerito affligit; or causal: a Deo, h.e., ita ut a Deo justificetur. All modern expositors rightly decide o…
The Church Fathers
"Born in the morning, in the evening they are no more. This means that they are nothing after this life, or that they arrive promptly from prosperity to tribulation; for chastisement has followed them closely. "And because they could not help each other, they perished," because they put their hope in them.
Eliphaz, still clinging to the same principle … that Job's critical circumstances were due to Job's own sins, adds these words, "Since they could not help themselves through virtue by repenting of their evils, these afflictions befell them." And Eliphaz suggests that he fully comprehends this situation. They perished since they could not drive away the most fearful accidents because of their weakness, demonstrating human power's worthlessness.
They shall be cut off from morning to evening. For the sinner is 'cut off from morning to evening,' in that from the beginning of his life to the end thereof he is ever getting wounded by the commission of sin. For the reprobate by increase in wickedness are at all times redoubling blows upon themselves, cut off by which, they may fall headlong into the pit. And it is well said of them by the Psalmist, Bloody and deceitful men shall not halve their days. For to 'halve our days' is to part off the time of our life misspent in pleasure, for the purpose of penitential mourning, and in parting off to recover the same to a good use. But the wicked never 'halve their days,' in that not even in the end of their time do they change their frowardness of heart. Contrary whereunto Paul rightly exhorts, saying, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. For we 'redeem the time,' when by tears we recover our past life, which by rioting we had lost. It goes on, And because none understandeth, they perish for ever. That is to say, 'none' of those, who 'shall be cut off from morning unto evening.' 'None understandeth,' whether of those that perish, or of those who follow the lost ways of the perishing. Whence it is elsewhere written, The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering. Thus, whereas the wicked are set upon temporal things alone, and are unconcerned to learn what blessings are in store for the Elect for everlasting, while they look to the affliction of the just, but never learn what is the recompense of that affliction, they put forth the foot of their conversation into the pit, for they willingly shut their eyes to the light of understanding. For being decoyed by foolish pleasures, whilst for objects, which they see, they entertain an affection, which belongs to time, being meanwhile strangers to themselves, they never see whereunto they are hurrying for all eternity. It is possible too that by the morning may be denoted the prosperous fortune of this world, and by the evening the adverse fortune thereof. So then 'the wicked are cut off from morning to evening,' in that by running riot through prosperity they are brought to ruin, and being made impatient by adversity they are lifted up to madness. These would never be cut off from morning to evening, by sin, if they either took prosperity for the…
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…
Dream · .Of Eliphaz, of a spirit speaking to him — .Of Eliphaz, of a spirit speaking to him
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).
The concept that God does not trust his own angels and that he charged his messengers with foolishness is otherwise unknown (but see Gen 6:1-4).
Rashi on Job 4:20
From morning to evening they are crushed in one day, they are crushed and subdued.
without giving [a thought] lit. without putting it upon their heart to return to their Maker.
they perish to eternity This too is an elliptical verse.
