Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

Ver. 20. Hell and destruction are never satisfied.] Hell and the grave have their name in Hebrew from their unsatisfiableness, being always craving more, and that with assiduity and importunity. And this fitly follows upon the former verse, as Aben Ezra well observeth, that men may be frighted by the remembrance of hell's wide mouth gaping for them, from following the bent of their sinful natures; and that those that here have never enough, shall once have fire enough in the bottom of hell.

So the eyes of men are never satisfied.] That is, Their lusts, their carnal concupiscence. To seek to satisfy it is an endless piece of business, Quaecunque videt oculus, ea omnia desiderat avarus, saith Basil. The covetous man hankereth after all that he beholdeth; the curse of unsatisfiableness lies heavy upon him; his desire is a fire, riches a fuel, which seem to slake the fire; but, indeed, they increase it. "He that loveth silver shall never be satisfied with silver"; Ecc 5:10 no more shall he that loveth honour, pleasure, &c. Earthly things cannot so fill the heart, but still it would have more things in number, and otherwise for manner. And therefore the particles in the Hebrew that signify and and or, come of a word that signifies to desire; a because the desires of a man would have this and that, and that and another; and doth also tire itself, not knowing whether to have this, or that, or the other, &c.

a ו and, או of אוח .

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