Job 14:1-9

Job Continues: Death Comes Soon to All

1 "Man who is 1born of a woman is 2few of days and 3full of trouble.
2 He comes out like 4a flower and 5withers; he flees like 6a shadow and continues not.
3 And do you 7open your eyes on such a one and 8bring me into judgment with you?
4 Who can bring 9a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.
5 Since his 10days are determined, and 11the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
6 12look away from him and leave him alone,[a] that he may enjoy, like 13a 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 14its stump die in the soil,
9 yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out 15branches like a young 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.

Cross References 15

  • 1. Job 15:14; Job 25:4; Matthew 11:11
  • 2. Job 10:20; Job 16:22; Genesis 47:9; Psalms 39:5; Psalms 89:47
  • 3. See Job 5:7
  • 4. Psalms 103:15; Isaiah 40:6, 7; James 1:10; 1 Peter 1:24
  • 5. Psalms 37:2; Psalms 90:6
  • 6. See Job 8:9; Job 17:7; Psalms 109:23
  • 7. [Psalms 8:4; Psalms 144:3]
  • 8. Job 22:4; Psalms 143:2
  • 9. Job 15:14; [Psalms 51:5; John 3:6]
  • 10. [Job 7:1; Psalms 39:4]
  • 11. Job 21:21
  • 12. Job 7:19
  • 13. Job 7:1
  • 14. Isaiah 11:1
  • 15. [Job 29:19]

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Probable reading; Hebrew look away from him, that he may cease
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.