Job 14:1-9

1 All of us are born of women, have few days, and are full of turmoil.
2 Like a flower, we bloom, then wither, flee like a shadow, and don't last.
3 (Yes, you open your eyes on this one; you bring me into trial against you.)
4 Who can make pure from impure? Nobody.
5 If our days are fixed, the number of our months with you, you set a statute and we can't exceed it.
6 Look away from us that we may rest, until we are satisfied like a worker at day's end.

Trees versus humans

7 Indeed there is hope for a tree. If it's cut down and still sprouting and its shoots don't fail,
8 if its roots age in the ground and its stump dies in the dust,
9 at the scent of water, it will bud and produce sprouts like a plant.

Job 14:1-9 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 14

Job, having turned himself from his friends to God, continues his address to him in this chapter; wherein he discourses of the frailty of man, the shortness of his life, the troubles that are in it, the sinfulness of it, and its limited duration, beyond which it cannot continue; all which he makes use of with God, that he would not therefore deal rigorously with him, but have pity on him, and cease from severely afflicting him, till he came to the end of his days, which could not be long, Job 14:1-6; he observes of a tree, when it is cut down to the root, yea, when the root is become old, and the stock dies, it will, by means of being watered, bud and sprout again, and produce boughs and branches; but man, like the failing waters of the sea, and the decayed and dried up flood, when he dies, rises not, till the heavens be no more, Job 14:7-12; and then he wishes to be hid in the grave till that time, and expresses hope and belief of the resurrection of the dead, Job 14:13-15; and goes on to complain of the strict notice God took of his sins, of his severe dealings with men, destroying their hope in life, and removing them by death; so that they see and know not the case and circumstances of their children they leave behind, and while they live have continual pain and sorrow, Job 14:16-22.

Footnotes 2

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