Ver. 1. The righteous perisheth.] So the world deemeth, but not rightly, for “the righteous hath hope in his death,” when “the wicked dying is driven away in his wickedness” (Proverbs 14:32) -by “him that had the power of death, even the devil” (Hebrews 2:14) -having been “through fear of death all their lifetime subject to bondage.” The Lacedaemonians all the time of their life adored death. The righteous can defy death, with Paul, and sing, Death, where is thy sting? hell, where is thy victory? He is not “killed with death,” as Jezebel’s children were; (Revelation 2:23) but dieth in peace, though he die in battle, as Josiah did, of whom some interpret this text. And no man layeth it to heart.] Heb., Upon his heart, that it may sink and soak into it, so as to be soundly sensible of God’s holy hand and end in such a providence. See Isaiah 5:12. There is a woe to oscitancy and stupidity of this kind. And merciful men.] Heb, Men of piety or pity, such as all righteous persons are. They have received mercy, and they can show it; (Colossians 3:12) they have steeped their thoughts in the mercies of God, which have dyed theirs as the dye fat doth the cloth. Are taken away.] Heb., Gathered, as grain is into the garner, or fruit into the storehouse; so they into Abraham’s bosom. As men gather flowers, and candy them, and preserve them by them, so doth God his pious ones. No man considering.] None of those debauched ones (Isaiah 56:12) to be sure of. These are glad to be rid of the righteous, as the Sodomites were of righteous Lot; as the heathen persecutors were of t he martyrs, whom they counted καθαρματα, the “sweepings of the world, and the offscourings of all things.” (1 Corinthians 4:13) That the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.] As was Methuselah a year before the flood; Jeroboam’s best son, before the downfall of his father’s family; (1 Kings 14:12,13) Josiah before the captivity and first destruction of Jerusalem; (2 Kings 22:20) James before the second; (Acts 12:2) Augustine a little before the sack of his city Hippo, by the Vandals. Felix Nepotianus qui haec non vidit, saith Jerome. Stilico said, that when Ambrose was dead great changes would follow; and it happened accordingly. Luther was taken away in peace, a little before the calamity of Germany, which he foretold, for contempt of the gospel. Pareus died a little before Heidelberg was taken, futuro malo substractus. Mr Brightman was buried a day or two before the pursuivant was sent for him. God had housed him, as he had Lot before the storm; hid him, as he had done Moses in the hole of the rock, till the tempest was blown over; dealt by him, as once by Daniel, (Daniel 12:13) who was bid to go away and rest before those great clashings and confusions should come, which had been foreshown to him. Howbeit this is not generally so; for Jeremiah lived to see the first destruction of Jerusalem, John the Evangelist the last. Mr Dod and many other holy men outlived our recent unhappy wars, and deeply shared in them. But usually God taketh away his most eminent servants from the evil to come. As when there is a fire in a house or town men carry out their jewels; ωκυμοροι οι θεοφιλεις, saith an ancient, the best die first commonly. The comfort is, that though as grapes they be gathered before they are ripe, and as lambs, slain before they be grown, yet this benefit they have, that they are freed from the violence of the winepress that others fall into, and they escape many storms that others live to taste of. Calvin, in hunc locum, Dion., Prus. Orat. 28.
Ver. 2. He shall enter into peace,] i.e., Into heaven, where the righteous—however looked upon as lost (Isaiah 57:1) -shall have “life and peace,” (Romans 8:6) joy and bliss, (Matthew 25:21,23) rest and peace, (Revelation 14:13) and this απαρτι amodo, strait upon it so soon as ever they are dead; from henceforth forthwith their souls have happiness inconceivable. As for their bodies, They shall rest in their beds.] So their graves are called, by an elegant metaphor, like as the bier that carrieth to it is called matteh, a couch, (2 Samuel 3:31) the burying place, a dormitory, or place to sleep in, and the resurrection an awakening. (Psalms 17:15) To this bed Moses went up when his Father bade. He died ad os Iehovae according to the word of God, (Deuteronomy 34:5) which the Jewish doctors expound as though God did take away his soul with a kiss, like as the loving mother kisseth the child, and then layeth it down to sleep. Rhodingus, a Dutch divine, when he perceived he should die, desired to be laid in another bed, which he called his bed of rest, and upon which he had long before written this verse— “ Ut somnus mortis, sic lectus imago sepulchri. ” In this short bed of the grave shall be laid up the infinite miseries of many years; the bodies of the saints shall, by rotting, be refined, their precious dust preserved, till at last it arise incorruptible. O dieculam illam! Each one walking in his uprightness.] Or, Walking before him, or right over against him; that is, keeping equipage with him, as when one friend walketh with another. κοιμητηριον. Maimonid. Melch. Adam.