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Job 14

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The Brevity and Misery of Human Life 1–6

1
Man, that is born of a woman, Is of few days, and full of trouble. ​
2
He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: He fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. ​
3
And dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one, And bringest me into judgment with thee? ​
4
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. ​
5
Seeing his days are determined, The number of his months is with thee, And thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass; ​
6
Look away from him, that he may rest, Till he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day. ​

Man's Death Contrasted with Nature's Hope 7–12

7
For there is hope of a tree, If it be cut down, that it will sprout again, And that the tender branch thereof will not cease. ​
8
Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, And the stock thereof die in the ground;
9
Yet through the scent of water it will bud, And put forth boughs like a plant.
10
But man dieth, and is laid low: Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? ​
11
Asthe waters fail from the sea, And the river wasteth and drieth up;
12
So man lieth down and riseth not: Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, Nor be roused out of their sleep. ​

A Plea for Temporary Refuge and Future Hope 13–17

13
Oh that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol, That thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, That thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! ​
14
If a man die, shall he liveagain? All the days of my warfare would I wait, Till my release should come. ​
15
Thou wouldest call, and I would answer thee: Thou wouldest have a desire to the work of thy hands. ​
16
But now thou numberest my steps: Dost thou not watch over my sin? ​
17
My transgression is sealed up in a bag, And thou fastenest up mine iniquity. ​

God's Relentless Destruction of Man's Hope 18–22

18
But the mountain falling cometh to nought; And the rock is removed out of its place; ​
19
The waters wear the stones; The overflowings thereof wash away the dust of the earth: So thou destroyest the hope of man. ​
20
Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth; Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.
21
His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; And they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them. ​
22
But his flesh upon him hath pain, And his soul within him mourneth. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Job 14

Verse 1

born of a woman — 'Few' is qatser, short, and 'trouble' is rogez, restlessness, the word of 'yet trouble came' (Job 3:26). Eliphaz said 'man is born unto trouble' (Job 5:7), and Jacob called his own days 'few and evil' (Gen 47:9). Job speaks here of man (adam) as such.

Verse 2

a flower… a shadow — Two figures for the brevity of a life: the blossom (tsiyts) that is 'cut down' and the shade (tsel) that does not stay. Both recur in Ps 103:15–16 and Ps 144:4. Isaiah and Peter use the first: 'All flesh is grass… but the word of our God shall stand for ever' (Isa 40:6, 8; 1 Pet 1:24).

Verse 3

dost thou open thine eyes — Paqach, to open the eyes, here God's attentive gaze fixed on one frail creature, with 'judgment' (mishpat) as its end. David pleads the same ground: 'enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified' (Ps 143:2); compare Ps 144:3.

Verse 4

a clean thing out of an unclean — Tahor and tame are the clean and unclean of the law. The answer is 'not one' (echad). Eliphaz and Bildad return to the thought (Job 15:14; 25:4), David confesses it (Ps 51:5), and Christ draws the line: 'That which is born of the flesh is flesh' (John 3:6).

Verse 5

thou hast appointed his bounds — 'Bounds' is choq, a statute or fixed limit, the word that returns as the 'set time' of v.13. The days and months are numbered 'with thee'. Paul says the same of nations: God 'hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation' (Acts 17:26).

Verse 6

as an hireling — Sakir, a man hired by the day, the figure of Job 7:1–2, where the hireling 'looketh for the reward of his work'. 'Turn from him' asks God to look away; 'rest' (chadal) is to desist, the verb rendered 'cease' of the cut tree's shoot in v.7.

Verse 7

hope of a tree — 'Hope' is tiqvah, whose root idea is a cord; it returns in v.19, where God 'destroyest the hope of man'. 'Sprout again' is chalaph, to pass on and be renewed, the root of 'change' in v.14. The 'tender branch' (yoneqeth) is the shoot a stump sends up.

Verse 10

man dieth, and wasteth away — The first 'man' is geber, a strong man; the second, adam. 'Wasteth away' (chalash) is to be laid low. 'Giveth up the ghost' is gava', to breathe out, said of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Gen 25:8; 35:29; 49:33). The question 'where is he?' stays open until vv.14–15.

Verse 12

till the heavens be no more — Job fixes the limit of sleep at the end of the heavens, which Peter and John also foretell (2 Pet 3:10; Rev 21:1). 'Awake' is qutz, the verb of Dan 12:2: 'many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake'. Death is called 'sleep' (shenah).

Verse 13

hide me in the grave — 'Grave' is sheol; 'hide' (tsaphan) and 'keep me secret' (sathar) are verbs of shelter, as in Isa 26:20, 'hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast'. 'Set time' is choq, the 'bounds' of v.5: the limit now becomes an appointment.

Verse 14

till my change come — 'Appointed time' is tsaba', a term of service, as in Job 7:1; 'change' is chaliphah, a relief or turn of duty (1 Kgs 5:14, 'by courses'), from the root of 'sprout again' in v.7. 'Wait' is yachal, to hope. Paul speaks of the change at the resurrection: 'we shall all be changed' (1 Cor 15:51).

Verse 15

Thou shalt call, and I will answer — Job had demanded 'call thou, and I will answer' (Job 13:22); here the call is God's and the answer his. 'Desire' is kasaph, to long, the verb of Ps 84:2, 'My soul longeth… for the courts of the LORD'. The 'work of thine hands' is the phrase of Job 10:3, where he asked whether God would 'despise' it.

Verse 16

numberest my steps — Saphar, to count; tsa'ad is a single pace. Job had used the figure of himself in his defence, 'Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?' (Job 31:4). 'Watch over' is shamar, to guard, the keeper's verb, and 'For now' sets the present against the hope of v.15.

Verse 17

sealed up in a bag — Tserowr, a bundle, the word of the 'bundle of life with the LORD thy God' in 1 Sam 25:29. What is tied up there is a life; here it is a transgression, sealed like the stored judgments of Deut 32:34, 'laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures'.

Verse 18

the mountain falling — The verbs are naphal, to fall, nabel, to wither, and athaq, to be moved on. Bildad turns the last line on Job, 'shall the rock be removed out of his place?' (Job 18:4). The mountain's fall is the first of two pictures of slow wearing; the second, the water of v.19, ends in man's hope.

Verse 19

the things which grow out of the dust — Caphiach is what grows of itself, the self-sown crop of the sabbath year (Lev 25:5; 2 Kgs 19:29), washed away by the waters. The verse ends with 'the hope of man' (tiqvah, as in v.7): the tree has it, but man, here enosh, mortal, sees it destroyed.

Verse 21

his sons come to honour — 'Honour' is kabad, weight; 'brought low' is tsa'ar, made small. The dead man 'knoweth it not', as Ecclesiastes says, 'the dead know not any thing… neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun' (Eccl 9:5–6); compare Isa 63:16.

Verse 22

his flesh upon him shall have pain — 'Flesh' is basar, the body; 'soul' is nephesh, the whole person; 'pain' is kaab and 'mourn' is abal. The word for flesh is also Job's in his later hope, 'yet in my flesh shall I see God' (Job 19:26).