Job 14 -- Old Testament -- Gospel Daily

Job

Chapter 14

Man's Brief Life and Lack of Hope

Job laments the brevity and trouble inherent in human life, comparing a person to a flower that is quickly cut down and a shadow that does not endure. He questions why God brings him into judgment given his mortal frailty, noting that unlike a tree which may sprout again after being cut down, man dies and does not rise until the heavens are no more. Job wishes God would hide him in the grave until his wrath passes, yet asks if man could live again, expressing hope in God even while facing death.

Human mortality and brevityNo resurrection hopeTree regenerates, man does notHuman frailtyDesire for grave's hiding

¹Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

²He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

³And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?

⁴Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.

⁵Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;

⁶Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.

⁷For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

⁸Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;

⁹Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.

¹⁰But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

¹¹As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:

¹²So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

¹³O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

¹⁴If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

¹⁵Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

¹⁶For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?

¹⁷My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.

¹⁸And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.

¹⁹The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.

²⁰Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.

²¹His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.

²²But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.