Job 14 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Job 14

Job Continues: Death Comes Soon to All

14:1   “Man who is born of a woman
    is few of days and full of trouble.
2   He comes out like a flower and withers;
    he flees like a shadow and continues not.
3   And do you open your eyes on such a one
    and bring me into judgment with you?
4   Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
    There is not one.
5   Since his days are determined,
    and the number of his months is with you,
    and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
6   look away from him and leave him alone,¹
    that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.
7   “For there is hope for a tree,
    if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
    and that its shoots will not cease.
8   Though its root grow old in the earth,
    and its stump die in the soil,
9   yet at the scent of water it will bud
    and put out branches like a young plant.
10   But a man dies and is laid low;
    man breathes his last, and where is he?
11   As waters fail from a lake
    and a river wastes away and dries up,
12   so a man lies down and rises not again;
    till the heavens are no more he will not awake
    or be roused out of his sleep.
13   Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
    that you would conceal me until your wrath be past,
    that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14   If a man dies, shall he live again?
    All the days of my service I would wait,
    till my renewal² should come.
15   You would call, and I would answer you;
    you would long for the work of your hands.
16   For then you would number my steps;
    you would not keep watch over my sin;
17   my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
    and you would cover over my iniquity.
18   “But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
    and the rock is removed from its place;
19   the waters wear away the stones;
    the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
    so you destroy the hope of man.
20   You prevail forever against him, and he passes;
    you change his countenance, and send him away.
21   His sons come to honor, and he does not know it;
    they are brought low, and he perceives it not.
22   He feels only the pain of his own body,
    and he mourns only for himself.”

Footnotes

[1] 14:6 Probable reading; Hebrew look away from him, that he may cease
[2] 14:14 Or relief

Commentary

v1-6: Life is short. Like a flower it is beautiful, and then it is gone. Those few days are "full of trouble." Should God fix His eye on a human being, with such frailty and transitoriness?

Man is naturally impure, and has no power in himself to change that.

Ultimately, God determines the length of a human life. He is like a hired man, working for a fixed time.

v7-12: Even a tree will grow again, but man cannot, "If a man dies, will he live again?" (v14). Only later (chapter 19) do we read of Job's confidence in the resurrection, although there is a faint hope here, that man will not rise again until the heavens are no more.

We must learn from these truths; 'only one life, will soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last.'

v13-17: In the present time, Job sought release, being hidden in the grave.

John Calvin comments on v14; 'Besides, when Job says that he will wait for his change (renewal), this word deserves to be thoroughly weighed. Truly he speaks of the resurrection, inasmuch as we must be completely renewed, the corruption which is in us by reason of Adam's sin must be destroyed and God must receive us into the immortality of His kingdom.' (Sermons from Job) This testimony is developed in chapter 19.

v18-22: Job's experience, as his hope is eroded, before death takes him away. He will be ignorant of earthly events, and mourns only for himself.