Job 14:10-20

10 No man is like that. When he dies, he is buried in a grave. He takes his last breath. Then he is gone.

11 Water disappears from lakes. Riverbeds become empty and dry.

12 In the same way, a man lies down and never gets up. He won't wake up or rise from his sleep until the heavens are gone.

13 "I wish you would hide me in a grave! I wish you would cover me up until your anger passes by! I wish you would set the time for me to spend in the grave and then bring me back up!

14 If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard work I will wait for the time when you give me new life.

15 You will call out to me, and I will answer you. Your hands created me. So you will long for me.

16 Then you will count every step I take. But you won't keep track of my sin.

17 The wrong things I've done will be sealed up in a bag. You will wipe out my sins by forgiving them.

18 "A mountain wears away and crumbles. A rock is moved from its place.

19 Water wears stones away. Storms wash soil away. In the same way, you destroy our hope.

20 You overpower us completely, and then we're gone. You change the way we look and send us to our graves.

Job 14:10-20 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.