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Job_29:18 Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply [my] days as the sand.
Ver. 18. Then I said, I shall die in my nest] Heb. I shall expire and breathe out my last, by a natural death, in my house, and amidst my people; as a bird dieth in his nest when he hath lived his utmost. Pollicebar mihi securitatem, I promised myself a prosperous and long life, all health and happiness (Brent.). This some make to be a fault in Job, as it was likewise in David, when in his prosperity he said, "I shall never be moved," Psa_30:6. And indeed the holiest hearts are apt in such a strait to grow proud and secure; like as worms and wasps eat the sweetest apples and fruits. But others are of judgment, that this was a commendable confidence in Job, grounded upon God’s promises, and the conscience of his own uprightness; an åõèõìéá , a spiritual security, a blessed calm and composedness, a sabbath of spirit, flowing from faith, and causing joy. This was all well, only that of Bernard must be carefully heeded and held to, Laeti simus non securi, gaudentes in Spiritu Sancto, sed tamen caventes a recidivo: Be merry we may, but not carnally secure; rejoicing in the Holy Ghost, but yet beware that we backslide not. David by misreckoning of a point, missed the haven, and ran upon the rocks, Psa_30:1-12 And Job here seemeth to have been mistaken, by taking the promises of outward happiness without exception of the cross; for the which he is afterwards reproved by Elihu, and also by God himself.
And shall multiply my days as the sand] i.e. Very long, by a Scripture hyperbole, Gen_22:17; Gen_32:12; Gen_41:49. The Septuagint read, As the Phoenix: the Vulgate Latin, As the palm tree, which is reckoned among the long lived trees, as is likewise the Phoenix among the longest lived creatures. R. Solomon saith it lives a thousand years, others five hundred, and then dieth in his nest, made of frankincense and myrrh, and other sweet odours, which being kindled by the heat of the sun, he is burnt to ashes, they say; out of which ashes, a long time after, cometh another Phoenix. How true all this of the Phoenix is, I have not to say. Let them that will read more in Gesner’s History of Birds; or let them look upon Lactantius’s poem called the Phoenix, with Betuleius’s comment.