Job 5:26, Isa 65:20 | JFB | STEP | 26. in a full age —So "full of days" ( ). Not mere length of years, but ripeness for death, one's inward and outward full development not being prematurely cut short, is denoted ( ). Thou shalt come —not literally, but expressing willingness to die. Eliphaz speaks from the Old Testament point of view, which made full years a reward of the righteous ( ), and premature death the lot of the wicked ( ). The righteous are immortal till their work is done. To keep them longer would be to render them less fit to die. God takes them at their best ( ). The good are compared to wheat ( ). cometh in —literally, "ascends." The corn is lifted up off the earth and carried home; so the good man "is raised into the heap of sheaves" [UMBREIT ].

Job 5:26

26. in a full age—So "full of days" (Job 42:17; Ge 35:29). Not mere length of years, but ripeness for death, one's inward and outward full development not being prematurely cut short, is denoted (Isa 65:22).

Thou shalt come—not literally, but expressing willingness to die. Eliphaz speaks from the Old Testament point of view, which made full years a reward of the righteous (Ps 91:16; Ex 20:12), and premature death the lot of the wicked (Ps 55:23). The righteous are immortal till their work is done. To keep them longer would be to render them less fit to die. God takes them at their best (Isa 57:1). The good are compared to wheat (Mt 13:30).

cometh in—literally, "ascends." The corn is lifted up off the earth and carried home; so the good man "is raised into the heap of sheaves" [UMBREIT].

Isaiah 65:20

20. The longevity of men in the first age of the world shall be enjoyed again.

thence—from that time forward.

infant of days—that is, an infant who shall only complete a few days; short-lived.

filled . . . days—None shall die without attaining a full old age.

child . . . die . . . hundred years—that is, "he that dieth an hundred years old shall die a mere child" [LOWTH].

sinner . . . hundred . . . be accursed—"The sinner that dieth at an hundred years shall be deemed accursed," that is, his death at so early an age, which in those days the hundredth year will be regarded, just as if it were mere childhood, shall be deemed the effect of God's special visitation in wrath [ROSENMULLER]. This passage proves that the better age to come on earth, though much superior to the present will not be a perfect state; sin and death shall have place in it (compare Re 20:7, 8), but much less frequently than now.