Job 14:11-21

11 [As] water drains out of a lake, or [as] a river dries up completely,
12 so each person lies down and does not rise until the heavens cease to exist. He does not wake up. He is not awakened from his sleep.
13 I wish you would hide me in Sheol and keep me hidden there until your anger cools. Set a specific time for me when you will remember me.
14 "If a person dies, will he go on living? I will wait for my relief to come as long as my hard labor continues.
15 You will call, and I will answer you. You will long for the person your hands have made.
16 Though now you count my steps, you will not keep [a record of] my sins.
17 My disobedience will be closed up in a bag, and you will cover over my sins.
18 As surely as a mountain falls and rocks are dislodged,
19 [so] water wears away stone, floods wash away soil from the land, and you destroy a mortal's hope.
20 You overpower him forever, and he passes away. You change his appearance and send him away.
21 His sons are honored, and he doesn't know it. Or they become unimportant, and he doesn't realize it.

Job 14:11-21 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.

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