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The small and great are there - All sorts and conditions of men are equally blended in the grave, and ultimately reduced to one common dust; and between the bond and free there is no difference. The grave is
"The appointed place of rendezvous, where all These travelers meet."
Equality is absolute among the sons of men in their entrance into and exit from the world: all the intermediate state is disparity. All men begin and end life alike; and there is no difference between the king and the cottager.
A contemplation of this should equally humble the great and the small.
The saying is trite, but it is true: -
Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,
Regumque turres.
Hor. Odar. lib. i., Od. iv., ver. 13.
"With equal pace impartial Fate
Knocks at the palace as the cottage gate."
Death is that state, "Where they an equal honor share Who buried or unburied are. Where Agamemnon knows no more Than Irus he contemn'd before. Where fair Achilles and Thersites lie, Equally naked, poor, and dry."
And why do not the living lay these things to heart?
There is a fine saying in Seneca ad Marciam, cap. 20, on this subject, which may serve as a comment on this place: Mors-servitutem invito domino remittit; haec captivorum catenas levat; haec e carcere eduxit, quos exire imperium impotens vetuerat. Haec est in quo nemo humilitatem suam sensit; haec quae nulli paruit; haec quae nihil quicquam alieno fecit arbitrio. Haec, ubi res communes fortuna male divisit, et aequo jure genitos alium alii donavit, exaequat omnia. - "Death, in spite of the master, manumits the slave. It loosens the chains of the prisoners. It brings out of the dungeon those whom impotent authority had forbidden to go at large. This is the state in which none is sensible of his humiliation. Death obeys no man. It does nothing according to the will of another. It reduces, by a just law, to a state of equality, all who in their families and circumstances had unequal lots in life."
The small and the great are there - The old and the young, the high and the low. Death levels all. It shows no respect to age; it spares none because they are vigorous, young, or beautiful. This sentiment has probably been expressed in various forms in all languages, for all people are made deeply sensible of its truth. The Classic reader will recall the ancient proverb,
Mors sceptra ligonibus aequat,
And the language of Horace:
Aequae lege Necessitas
Sortitur insignes et imos.
Omne capax movet urna nomen.
Tristis unda scilicet omnibus,
Quicunque terrae munere vescimur,
Enaviganda, sive reges,
Sive inopes erimus coloni.
Divesne prisco natus ab lnacho
Nil interest, an pauper et infima
De gente sub dio moreris
Victima nil miserantis Orci.
Omnes codem cogimur. Omnium
Versatur urna. Serius, ocyus,
Sors exitura.
- Omnes una manet nox,
Et calcauda semel via leti. (Nullum)
Mista senum acjuvenum densantur funera.
Saeva caput Proserpina lugit. (tabernas)
Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum
Regumque turres.
And the servant is free from his master - Slavery is at an end in the grave. The master can no longer tax the powers of the slave, can no longer scourge him or exact his uncompensated toil. Slavery early existed, and there is evidence here that it was known in the time of Job. But Job did not regard it as a desirable institution; for assuredly that is not desirable from which death would be regarded as a “release,” or where death would be preferable. Men often talk about slavery as a valuable condition of society, and sometimes appeal even to the Scriptures to sustain it; but Job felt that “it was worse than death,” and that the grave was to be preferred because there the slave would be free from his master. The word used here and rendered “free” (חפשׁי chophshı̂y ) properly expresses manumission from slavery. See it explained at length in my the notes at Isaiah 58:6.