Job 14:8-18

8 Though its roots have grown old in the earth and its stump decays,

9 at the scent of water it will bud and sprout again like a new seedling.

10 “But when people die, their strength is gone. They breathe their last, and then where are they?

11 As water evaporates from a lake and a river disappears in drought,

12 people are laid to rest and do not rise again. Until the heavens are no more, they will not wake up nor be roused from their sleep.

13 “I wish you would hide me in the grave and forget me there until your anger has passed. But mark your calendar to think of me again!

14 Can the dead live again? If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle, and I would eagerly await the release of death.

15 You would call and I would answer, and you would yearn for me, your handiwork.

16 For then you would guard my steps, instead of watching for my sins.

17 My sins would be sealed in a pouch, and you would cover my guilt.

18 “But instead, as mountains fall and crumble and as rocks fall from a cliff,

Job 14:8-18 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

• [a]. Hebrew in Sheol.