he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him anymore.
Job is answering his friends. By chapter 7 his grief has narrowed to one thought: his life is nearly over, and when it ends, everything he knows on earth ends with it. If death wipes a man out of his own home, is that the whole story?
Where the words stand in Job's lament
Around this verse Job piles up images of how fast life runs out:
Samuel RidoutJob now returns to dwell on his sufferings, in view of how short life is. Sleepless nights of "tossings to and fro" run through months of unrelieved pain. They make him long for that "appointed time" set for all flesh, with the eager desire of a hired worker waiting for the end of his day's work. His painful days pass like the swift shuttle in a weaver's loom. Soon they will see him no more, and his life will melt away like a cloud in the blue sky.
What Job was asking for
The vanishing cloud is not only a description. It is a wish. Job is not dreading the end; he is asking for it. But God had a purpose in the pain he wanted stopped:
William KellyBut God was putting him into the furnace so that he might come out purer than ever... He compared himself to a cloud that fades and vanishes away. The one who goes down to the grave comes up no more. That is what he wanted — that it should end.
Only the dark side
Another part of Scripture uses the same picture — a life gone, its place knowing it no more. But it does not stop there. Job does:
Samuel RidoutThis is beautiful poetry, and true as far as man's view goes: "he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more." It is the funeral song of human existence since sin brought in death. "But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him" (Ps. 103:15-18). Job sees only the dark side, for while he does turn to God here, he speaks not of mercy but of wrath.
What the verse does and does not settle
Some read this verse as proof that a person stops existing at death. It describes what happens to a man's place on earth, not what happens to him:
The Bible TreasuryWhen we say that a man has died, we mean he has stopped existing on earth. His place here knows him no more (Job 7:10). Yet we are assured from Scripture that his spirit does not die. The body can, and does; death claims it; the grave holds it. The person, however, lives to God, as the Lord told the Sadducees in the temple at Jerusalem (Luke 20:38). Death sets the soul free from the body... We look at the person as a whole and say what is only true of a part: he is dead, because his body is dead.
Why a man's vanishing is not an animal's
Job's complaint carries a weight no dying animal feels. One writer traces that weight to what God made man for:
Frederick W. GrantThe beasts do perish. They were made for a temporary purpose only. They enjoy life while it lasts, with no sorrow for the past and no fear for the future. But man is not a beast: he is the offspring of God, meant to know and enjoy communion with Him forever... He, like them, passes away and is not found; his place knows him no more forever. But he is not like them. He has "thoughts" that perish with him: unfulfilled plans and purposes, affections that cling to what they cannot hold, and a dread on his soul that hints at a life to come.
Not reversed — replaced
Job's words can be taken at full strength without denying life beyond death. The same writer holds both together:
Frederick W. GrantSuch is death for man; and being such, it is the wages of sin. In death, man — the creature God made for Adam's paradise — perishes forever. He is set aside completely. And I do not forget resurrection when I say so. Resurrection does not restore him to this life. Job's words are true here, and we need not bring in the God-dishonouring idea that man is wiped out of existence... God's grace may give him another and a better thing, but it does not reverse the first judgment.
Summary
- Breath. Job's days run like a weaver's shuttle and melt like a cloud. The verse comes out of months of pain that made him long for the end.
- Wish. He is not dreading the grave; he is asking for it. Yet the furnace he wanted stopped was the very thing to bring him out purer.
- Place. What ends is his standing on earth: the house, the familiar spot. His spirit does not die; the person lives to God.
- Weight. God made man to know Him forever, unlike an animal. So man's passing leaves unfinished plans and a dread of what lies beyond.
- Grace. Resurrection does not hand back the old life; it gives another and better thing. Job saw only the dark half — mercy is the half he had not yet reached.