Job 14

Job 14:1-22 . JOB PASSES FROM HIS OWN TO THE COMMON MISERY OF MANKIND.

1. woman--feeble, and in the East looked down upon ( Genesis 2:21 ). Man being born of one so frail must be frail himself ( Matthew 11:11 ).
few days--( Genesis 47:9 , Psalms 90:10 ). Literally, "short of days." Man is the reverse of full of days and short of trouble.

2. ( Psalms 90:5 ;

3. open . . . eyes upon--Not in graciousness; but, "Dost Thou sharply fix Thine eyes upon?" watching on the part of God? ( Zechariah 12:4 ).
me--so frail.
thee--so almighty.

4. A plea in mitigation. The doctrine of original sin was held from the first. "Man is unclean from his birth, how then can God expect perfect cleanness from such a one and deal so severely with me?"

5. determined--( Job 7:1 , Isaiah 10:23 , Daniel 9:27 , 11:36 ).

6. Turn--namely, Thine eyes from watching him so jealously ( Job 14:3 ).
hireling--( Job 7:1 ).
accomplish--rather, "enjoy." That he may at least enjoy the measure of rest of the hireling who though hard worked reconciles himself to his lot by the hope of his rest and reward [UMBREIT].

7. Man may the more claim a peaceful life, since, when separated from it by death, he never returns to it. This does not deny a future life, but a return to the present condition of life. Job plainly hopes for a future state ( Job 14:13 , Job 7:2 ). Still, it is but vague and trembling hope, not assurance; excepting the one bright glimpse in Job 19:25 . The Gospel revelation was needed to change fears, hopes, and glimpses into clear and definite certainties.

9. scent--exhalation, which, rather than the humidity of water, causes the tree to germinate. In the antithesis to man the tree is personified, and volition is poetically ascribed to it.
like a plant--"as if newly planted" [UMBREIT]; not as if trees and plants were a different species.

10. man . . . man--Two distinct Hebrew words are here used; Geber, a mighty man: though mighty, he dies. Adam, a man of earth: because earthly, he gives up the ghost.
wasteth--is reduced to nothing: he cannot revive in the present state, as the tree does. The cypress and pine, which when cut down do not revive, were the symbols of death among the Romans.

11. sea--that is, a lake, or pool formed from the outspreading of a river. Job lived near the Euphrates: and "sea" is applied to it ( Jeremiah 51:36 , Isaiah 27:1 ). So of the Nile ( Isaiah 19:5 ).
fail--utterly disappeared by drying up. The rugged channel of the once flowing water answers to the outstretched corpse ("lieth down," Job 14:12 ) of the once living man.

12. heavens be no more--This only implies that Job had no hope of living again in the present order of the world, not that he had no hope of life again in a new order of things. Psalms 102:26 proves that early under the Old Testament the dissolution of the present earth and heavens was expected (compare Genesis 8:22 ). Enoch before Job had implied that the "saints shall live again" ( Jude 1:14 , Hebrews 11:13-16 ). Even if, by this phrase, Job meant "never" ( Psalms 89:29 ) in his gloomier state of feelings, yet the Holy Ghost has made him unconsciously ( 1 Peter 1:11 1 Peter 1:12 ) use language expressing the truth, that the resurrection is to be preceded by the dissolution of the heavens. In Job 14:13-15 he plainly passes to brighter hopes of a world to come.