Chapter Fourteen

The conclusion of Job’s response speech to Zophar’s speech. 1–17. Job’s hope in God’s mercy, which allows him to vindicate himself. 18–22. Considerations that weaken it.

Job 14:1. A man born of woman is short-lived and full of troubles: Job 14:2. like a flower, he comes forth and withers; he flees like a shadow and does not remain. Job 14:3. And upon him do You open Your eyes, and bring me into judgment before You? God is too harsh toward Job (Job 13:23-36), yet he stirs compassion and deserves mercy. The life of a man born of a weak woman (Gen 3:16; Jer 51:30) and therefore by nature powerless is short, like the existence of a flower (Ps 36:2; Isa 40:6-8), the standing of a shadow (Ps 101:12; Eccl 8:13; Wis 2:5), and in itself sorrowful. Therefore there is no need to watch him carefully and then punish him for the slightest transgressions (“open Your eyes,” v. 3; cf. Zech 12:4).

Job 14:4. Who can be born clean from the unclean? No one. Born of parents infected by sin (Ps 50:7), man by his nature is inclined toward sin (Job 15:14). He sins involuntarily (Job 15:16) and is entirely guiltless in some sins. Is it worthy, given this, to punish him?

Job 14:5. If days are appointed to him, and the number of his months is in Your hand, if You have set him a limit which he does not pass, Job 14:6. then turn away from him: let him rest until he finishes his day, like a hired worker. Earthly life is the only time for man to enjoy the blessings of happiness (Job 7:7), within the limits and bounds set for him by God (v. 5; cf. Ps 38:5-6). If now, by the Lord’s will, Job’s existence draws to a close, then He should “turn away from him” (from the Hebrew “avert Your gaze,” cf. Job 7:19; Job 10:20), “until he rejoices in his day, like a hired worker,” that is, He should stop the punishments so that Job can experience, in the final moments of his life, a sense of joy (cf. Job 10:20-22).

Job 14:7. For there is hope for a tree that if it be cut down, it will live again, and its shoots will not cease to come forth: Job 14:8. though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump dies in the dust, Job 14:9. yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a newly planted tree. Job 14:10. But a man dies and is laid low; he departs, and where is he? Job 14:11. The waters depart from a lake, and a river dries up and withers: Job 14:12. so a man lies down and does not rise; until the heavens are no more, he will not awake, nor be roused from his sleep. A continuation of the former thought. In respect to the enjoyment of life, man’s lot is more sorrowful than the lot of a tree. Cut down or withered, it continues to exist in shoots and sprouts under favorable conditions (v. 9). A dead man, on the other hand, will not return to life “until the heavens are no more” (v. 12), that is, never, for the heavens are eternal (Ps 88:30; Jer 31:35); at the end of the world they will undergo change but not destruction (Isa 65:17; 2 Pet 3:13). The irretrievable disappearance of a man full of life resembles the trackless disappearance of waters (v. 11; cf. Isa 19:5).

Job 14:13. O, if only You would hide me in the grave and conceal me until Your wrath passes, set me a term and then remember me! The circumstances which Job has enumerated, by means of which he counts on vindicating himself before God, will not, however, be accepted by Him while He remains in a state of wrath (Job 9:13). Job will die as a sinner rejected by the Lord. Not allowing himself to think this before (Job 13:15), he cannot reconcile himself to it now and expresses a wish to die only for a time, while the Lord’s wrath continues, on the condition of rising again and returning to earth with all the signs of God’s favor.

Job 14:14. When a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my appointed time I would wait, until my relief comes. Job 14:15. You would call, and I would answer You, and You would show favor to the work of Your hands; In spite of doubt about the fulfillment of the expressed wish (“when a man dies, will he live again?” cf. Ps 88:49), Job presents it as accomplished and as if contemplates the fact of his vindication. Temporarily hidden in Sheol, he would wait for the end of his appointed time there, would wait for a change (“until my relief comes”) in his condition, his relation to God. “God would call, and he would give Him an answer,” called not in order to accuse, but in order to give the opportunity to vindicate himself (cf. Job 13:22), would manifest mercy instead of wrath.

Job 14:16. for then You would count my steps, and would not watch for my sin; Job 14:17. my transgression would be sealed in a scroll, and You would cover my iniquity. Job would then experience complete blessedness, whose power is clarified by contrast with his present condition. “But now,” says the sufferer, in precise translation from the Hebrew, “You count my steps, You watch my deeds. You have sealed my transgression in a bag and placed a seal upon my iniquity.” Job’s enumerated sins are “sealed in a bag,” kept in perfect preservation for the corresponding punishment, will not be forgotten and will not go unpunished.

Job 14:18. But the mountain falls and crumbles, and the rock moves from its place; Job 14:19. water wears away stones; its torrents wash away the dust of the earth: so You destroy the hope of man. What constitutes the need of Job’s whole soul—the wish for temporary dwelling in Sheol—is destroyed by the arguments of reason. The doubt: “when a man dies, will he live again?” (v. 14) prevails. If solid objects—mountains, stones, and rocks—are destroyed and do not remain immovable, then much less can the weak hope of Job for a return to life after temporary dwelling in Sheol have a place.

Job 14:20. You press him forever, and he departs; You change his face and send him away. Indeed, the calamity brought about by death is eternal (“You press him forever,” Hebrew “lanezah” = “for eternity”; Job 20:7). Like every man, Job will die with his face disfigured by death (“You change his face”), will depart and no more return to earthly life (cf. “I will go and no more return” Job 10:21).

Job 14:21. Whether his children are honored—he does not know, or if they are brought low—he does not perceive; Job 14:22. but his own flesh suffers pain, and his own soul grieves within him. Death breaks all connection with the earth: the dead know nothing of the fate of those near to him (v. 21; cf. Eccl 9:5-6); his flesh feels only what concerns itself directly, his soul grieves only for itself (v. 22).