The Inevitableness of Death
A. Maclaren, D. D. John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night comes, when no man can work. "The time is short" — or as we might perhaps render it, so as to give the full force of the metaphor, "the time is pressed together." It is being squeezed into narrower compass, like a sponge in a strong hand. There is an old story of a prisoner in a cell with contractile walls. Day by day his space lessens. He saw the whole of that window yesterday; he sees only half of it today. Nearer and nearer the walls are drawn together, till they meet and crush him between them. So the wails of our home, which we have made our prison, are closing in upon us. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. WEB: I must work the works of him who sent me, while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work.