Job 14:12

So man lieth down - He falls asleep in his bed of earth.

And riseth not - Men shall not, like cut down trees and plants, reproduce their like; nor shall they arise till the heavens are no more, till the earth and all its works are burnt up, and the general resurrection of human beings shall take place. Surely it would be difficult to twist this passage to the denial of the resurrection of the body. Neither can these expressions be fairly understood as implying Job's belief in the materiality of the soul, and that the whole man sleeps from the day of his death to the morning of the resurrection. We have already seen that Job makes a distinction between the animal life and rational soul in man; and it is most certain that the doctrine of the materiality of the soul, and its sleep till the resurrection, has no place in the sacred records. There is a most beautiful passage to the same purpose, and with the same imagery, in Moschus's epitaph on the death of Bion: -

Αι, αι ται μαλαχαι μεν επαν κατα καπον ολωνται,

Η τα χλωρα σελινα, το τ' ευθαλες ουλον ανηθον,

Ὑστερον αυ ζωοντι, και εις ετος αλλο φυοντι·

Αμμες δ', οἱ μεγαλοι, και καρτεροι, η σοφοι ανδρες,

Ὁπποτε πρωτα θανωμες, ανακοοι εν χθονι κοιλα

Εὑδομες ευ μαλα μακρον, ατερμονα, νηγρετον ὑπνον.

Idyll. iii., ver. 100.

Alas! alas! the mallows, when they die,

Or garden herbs, and sweet Anethum's pride,

Blooming in vigor, wake again to life,

And flourish beauteous through another year:

But we, the great, the mighty, and the wise,

continued...

So man lieth down, and riseth not - He lies down in the grave and does not rise again on the earth.

Till the heavens be no more - That is, never; for such is the fair interpretation of the passage, and this accords with its design. Job means to say, undoubtedly, that man would never appear again in the land of the living; that he would not spring up from the grave, as a sprout does from a fallen tree; and that when he dies, he goes away from the earth never to return. Whether he believed in a future state, or in the future resurrection, is another question, and one that cannot be determined from this passage. His complaint is, that the present life is short, and that man when he has once passed through it cannot return to enjoy it again, if it has been unhappy; and he asks, therefore, why, since it was so short, man might not be permitted to enjoy it without molestation. It does not follow from this passage that he believed that the heavens ever would be no more, or would pass away.

The heavens are the most permanent and enduring objects of which we have any knowledge, and are, therefore, used to denote permanency and eternity; see Psalm 89:36-37. This verse, therefore, is simply a solemn declaration of the belief of Job that when man dies, he dies to live no more on the earth. Of the truth of this, no one can doubt - and the truth is as important and affecting as it is undoubted. If man could come back again, life would be a different thing. If he could revisit the earth to repair the evils of a wicked life, to repent of his errors, to make amends for his faults, and to make preparation for a future world, it would be a different thing to live, and a different thing to die. But when he travels over the road of life, he treads a path which is not to be traversed again. When he neglects an opportunity to do good, it cannot be recalled. When he commits an offence, he cannot come back to repair the evil. He falls, and dies, and lives no more. He enters on other scenes, and is amidst the retributions of another state. How important then to secure the passing moment, and to be prepared to go hence, to return no more! The idea here presented is one that is common with the poets. Thus, Horace says:

Nobis, cum semel occidit brevis lux,

Nox est perpetua una dormienda.

14:12 Lieth - In his bed, the grave. 'Till - Until the time of the general resurrection, when these visible heavens shall pass away.