Job 4:10

How much less in them Doth he put trust, &c., or, How much more (as the Hebrew particle א Š, aph, equally signifies) doth he charge folly on them, &c. One or other of these supplements seems necessary to complete the sense, and they are either of them natural and easy, being fetched from the former verse. The sense then is, If he put no trust in his angels, how much less will he put any in them that dwell in houses of clay; or, If he charged his angels with folly, how much more will he charge frail and mortal men therewith! What strange presumption then is it for a weak, sinful, and dying man to pretend to a higher privilege than the angels can lay claim to, and to make himself more just and pure than God, which all do, in effect, who complain of, or are impatient under, the righteous dispensations of the divine providence. That dwell in houses of clay Whose immortal spirits dwell in mortal bodies, which are great clogs, encumbrances, and snares to them. These are called houses, because they are the receptacles of the soul, and the places of its settled abode; and houses of clay, because they were made of clay or earth; and to denote their great frailty and mutability; whereas the angels are free spirits, unconfined to such carcasses, and dwell in celestial, glorious, and everlasting mansions; whose foundation No less than the rest of the building; is in the dust Who, as they dwell in dust and clay, so they had their original from it, and must return to it. We stand but upon the dust: some have a higher heap of dust to stand upon than others. But still it is mere earth and dust that stays us up, and will soon swallow us up; which are crushed before the moth “Which are as subject to be destroyed,” says Bishop Patrick, “as a garment to be fretted with moths;” which, though it be wrought with ever so much art and strength; though it be ever so curious, fine, and beautiful, is soon defaced and spoiled by that subtle and devouring insect. Or, sooner than, or like as, a moth is crushed, which is easily done by a gentle touch of the finger: an hyperbolical expression. Or, as לפני, liphnee, is still more properly rendered, before the face, or, at the presence of a moth. This interpretation, which is approved by Hervey, makes the passage to represent the body of man so exceedingly frail, that even a moth flying against it may dash it to pieces. And, “besides its closer correspondence,” says he, “with the exact import of the Hebrew, presents us with a much finer image of extreme imbecility; for it certainly implies a far greater degree of weakness to be crushed by the feeblest flutter of the feeblest creature, than only to be crushed as easily as that creature by the hand of man.” Certainly no creature is so weak and contemptible, but, one time or other, it may have the body of man in its power.