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Biblia Karoli Gaspar
Jób 14:18
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from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
the mountain: Psalms 102:25, Psalms 102:26, Isaiah 40:12, Isaiah 41:15, Isaiah 41:16, Isaiah 54:10, Isaiah 64:1, Jeremiah 4:24, Revelation 6:14, Revelation 8:8, Revelation 20:11
cometh to nought: Heb. fadeth
the rock: Job 18:4, Matthew 27:51
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought,.... Job here returns to his former subject of the irreparable state of man at death, which he illustrates by various other similes, as before; and first by a "mountain falling", which may be supposed, and has been fact, and when it does, it "comes to nought"; it crumbles into dust, and where it falls there it lies, and never rises up to a mountain, or to the height it had, any more; or it "withers" n, as some render it, the plants, herbs, and trees that grow upon it, wither away, see Nahum 1:4; or "it is dissolved", or "flows" o, and spreads itself over the face of the green earth it covers, and destroys with its dust and sand, which is never more gathered up to form a mountain again; so man, like unto a mountain, as kingdoms and states, and kings and princes, and great men are; the Targum instances in Lot; as a man may be said to be, that is in good health of body, and in prosperous circumstances in his family; when he falls, as he does by death, which is expressed by falling, 2 Samuel 3:38; he comes to nought, he is not any more in the land of the living, nor in the place and circumstances in which he was before:
and the rock is removed out of his place; from the mountain, of which it was a part; or elsewhere, by earthquakes, by force of winds, or strength of waters; and which, when once removed, is never returned to its place any more; so man, who in his full strength seems like a rock immovable, when death comes, it shakes and moves him out of his place, and that never knows him any more.
n יבול "marceseit", Tigurine version, Mercerus; "emarcescit", Schultens. o "Diffluit", Cocceius, Schmidt, Michaelis.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
And surely the mountain falling - Margin, “Fadeth.” The sense of this is, that the hope of man in regard to living again, must certainly fail - as a mountain falls and does not rise again; as the rock is removed, and is not replaced; or as the waters wear away the stones, and they disappear. The hope of dying man was not like the tree that would spring up again Job 14:7-9; it was like the falling mountain, the wasting waters Job 14:11, the rock that was removed. The reference in the phrase before us is, probably, to a mountain that settles down and disappears - as is sometimes the case in violent convulsions of nature. It does not rise again, but is gone to reappear no more. So Job says it was of man.
And the rock is removed - An earthquake shakes it, and removes it from its foundation, and it is not replaced.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Job 14:18. The mountain falling cometh to naught — Every thing in nature is exposed to mutability and decay:-even mountains themselves may fall from their bases, and be dashed to pieces; or be suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake; and, by the same means, the strongest and most massive rocks may be removed.