Job 27:19 Commentary and Bible Study

The rich man therefore lies down in the grave because he is summoned to judgment; God has called him to account and this marks the destruction of all his plans. The final distinction between the righteous and the wicked begins here. He lies down but is not gathered. The term ‘to be gathered’ occurs in connection with death and usually has the phrase ‘to his fathers’ added: ‘Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place’ (2 Kings 22:20). It is an act of God, not of men, although the term could be used of those slain on the battle field whose bodies were gathered up and buried out of respect. But there also is a gathering of God which brings a man into paradise and distinguishes him from those who are abandoned to the grave and therefore lost. Christ speaks of this: ‘he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other’ (Matthew 24:31). The book of Revelation also speaks of gathering in connection with death, though not in a good sense. John the Baptist uses the term, ‘Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire’ (Matthew 3:12). There is a gathering to judgment also in Matthew 13:41. The term makes use of the metaphor of the harvest, Men are reaped at the end of life just as a crop is reaped at the harvest. The image might be used to apply to what is valued and kept, or to what is not valued and thrown away. The context decides the meaning and here it is certainly a gathering associated with salvation that is intended, which the wicked never experience.He opens his eyes, as one that awakes in the morning but discovers that he is no more; life is over and he is not saved. This is not a reference to sleep at the end of the day and awaking the next morning, for the following verses show that the final end of the man is in mind. The Hebrew could mean either the man or his wealth are no more, but the former is better because of the context of death. The general idea is that the wicked lose all in death, their riches, their homes and their eternal souls.