Reasons Why Good Men May Look Forward with Desire to the Termination of Life
James Grant. Job 7:16 I loathe it; I would not live always: let me alone; for my days are vanity. The sentiment of the text is not unfrequently the breathing of a guilty soul — racked with remorse, stung by an accusing conscience, haunted by the recollection of deeds of guilt, and prompted by the hope, if not the sober belief, that death shall prove the end of all. The words of the text, however, do not necessarily imply either impiety or impatience. Even good men may be weary of life, and long for its close. 1. Good men may be so fax reconciled to death, from their experience of the evils of life, and the unsatisfactory nature of all earthly enjoyments. In infancy, we rejoice in parental care: in youth, our imagination is gladdened by the beauty and novelty of the scene around us; we live in hope, and are ignorant of the evil to come; in the maturity of life, we exercise, with peculiar satisfaction, our ripened powers, and draw liberally on the stores of friendship and affection. Yet is this world termed a vale of tears; and they who have lived the longest, and enjoyed the greatest portion of the world's good, have with one voice declared their days to have been both few and evil. 2. Good men may be led to look forward with desire to the termination of life, from the changes taking place around them, and particularly the deaths of companions and friends. 3. Good men may be reconciled to death, and may be led even to desire it, from the remains of sin and their growing desire after perfection. (James Grant.) Parallel Verses KJV: I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity. WEB: I loathe my life. I don't want to live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.