Albert Barnes Commentary Job 4:20

"Betwixt morning and evening they are destroyed: They perish for ever without any regarding it." — Job 4:20 (ASV)

They are destroyed from morning to evening—the margin says, “beaten in pieces.” This is closer to the Hebrew. The phrase “from morning to evening” means between the morning and the evening; that is, they live scarcely a single day (see the notes at Isaiah 38:12). The idea is not the continuance of the work of destruction from morning to evening, but that man’s life is exceedingly short, so short that he scarcely seems to live from morning to night. What a beautiful expression, and how true! How little qualified is such a being to sit in judgment on the actions of the Most High!

They perish forever—without being restored to life. They pass away, and nothing is ever seen of them again!

Without any regarding it—without its being noticed. How strikingly true this is! What a narrow circle is affected by the death of a man, and how soon does even that circle cease to be affected! A few relatives and friends feel it and weep over the loss, but the mass of people are unconcerned. It is like taking a grain of sand from the seashore or a drop of water from the ocean. There is indeed one less, but the place is soon supplied, and the ocean rolls on its tumultuous billows as though none had been taken away. So with human life.

The affairs of people will roll on; the world will be as busy, and active, and thoughtless as though we had not been; and soon, O how painfully soon to human pride, will our names be forgotten!

The circle of friends will cease to weep, and then cease to remember us. The last memorial that we lived will be gone. The house that we built, the bed on which we slept, the office we occupied, the monuments we raised, the books we made, the stone that we directed to be placed over our graves—all will be gone; and the last memento that we ever lived will have faded away!

How vain is man! How vain is pride! How foolish is ambition! How important is the announcement that there is another world, where we may live on forever!