Job 14:1-10

1 "A person who is born of a woman is short-lived and is full of trouble.

2 He comes up like a flower; then he withers. He is like a fleeting shadow; he doesn't stay long.

3 You observe this and call me to account to you.

4 "If only an unclean person could become clean! It's not possible.

5 If the number of his days and the number of his months are determined by you, and you set his limit, then he cannot go past it.

6 Look away from him, and he will cease to be. Meanwhile, he loves life as a laborer loves work.

7 There is hope for a tree when it is cut down. It will sprout again. Its shoots will not stop sprouting.

8 If its roots grow old in the ground and its stump dies in the soil,

9 merely a scent of water will make it sprout and grow branches like a plant.

10 But a human dies and is powerless. A person breathes his last breath, and where is he?

Job 14:1-10 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.