Job 4:19

houses of clay The verse refers to men, and their "houses of clay" are their bodies, which are of the dust, Genesis 2:7; Genesis 3:19; 2 Corinthians 5:1.

whose foundation Men's bodies being compared to houses are now spoken of as, like houses, having a foundation. They are not only of earth, they are founded on earth of the earth earthy. They are built of earth, derived from earth, limited to earth. The accumulation of terms enhances the material nature of man in opposition to the spirits on high. Yet even these spirits are limited, and, as creatures, not absolute in their holiness, and to God's eye even erring. No words could more strongly express God's unapproachable holiness.

before the moth The words may mean: sooner, easier, than the moth is crushed. They can hardly mean in the connexion, bythe moth; although the moth is usually elsewhere spoken of as the destroyer, ch. Job 13:28; Isaiah 50:9; Isaiah 51:8, and not as the object of destruction. The phrase beforemight have a sense similar to what it has in ch. Job 3:24, likethe moth; so the Sept.