---
title: "Clarke"
description: "Verse Job 14:1. Man-born of a woman — There is a delicacy in the original, not often observed: אדם ילוד אשה Adam yelud ishah, \"Adam born of a woman, few o"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/job/14"
---

Verse [Job 14:1](../../../kjv/job/14/1). ***Man-born of a woman*** — There is a delicacy in the original, not often observed: אדם ילוד אשה *Adam yelud ishah*, "Adam born of a woman, few of days, and full of tremor." *Adam*, who did *not* spring from *woman*, but was immediately formed by *God*, had *many days*, for he lived *nine hundred* and *thirty* years; during which time neither sin nor death had multiplied in the earth, as they were found in the days of Job. But the *Adam* who springs *now* *from woman*, in the way of ordinary generation, has *very few years.* *Seventy*, on an average, being the highest term, may be well said to be *few in days*; and all matter of fact shows that they are full of fears and apprehensions, רגז *rogez*, cares, anxieties, and tremors. He seems born, not indeed to *live*, but to *die*; and, by living, he forfeits the title to life.

Verse [Job 14:2](../../../kjv/job/14/2). ***He cometh forth like a flower*** — This is a frequent image both in the Old and New Testament writers; I need not quote the places here, as the readers will find them all in the *margin*.
***He fleeth also as a shadow*** — Himself, as he appears among men, is only the *shadow* of his *real, substantial*, and *eternal* being. He is here compared to a *vegetable*; he springs up, bears his flower is often nipped by disease, blasted by afflictions and at last cut down by death. The bloom of youth, even in the most prosperous state, is only the forerunner of hoary hairs, enfeebled muscles, impaired senses, general debility, anility, and dissolution. All these images are finely embodied, and happily expressed, in the beautiful lines of a very nervous and correct poet, too little known, but whose compositions deserve the *first place* among what may be called the *minor poets* of Britain. See at the end of the chapter. [Job 14:22](../../../kjv/job/14/22).

Verse [Job 14:3](../../../kjv/job/14/3). ***Dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one*** — The whole of this chapter is directed to God alone; in no part of it does he take any notice of his friends.

Verse [Job 14:4](../../../kjv/job/14/4). ***Who can bring a clean*****thing**] This verse is thus rendered by the *Chaldee*: "Who will produce a clean thing from man, who is polluted with sins, except God, who is one?" By *Coverdale* thus: *Who can make it cleane, that commeth of an uncleane thinge?* *No body*.
The text refers to man's *original* and corrupt nature. Every man that is born into the world comes into it in a corrupt or sinful state. This is called *original sin*; and is derived from *fallen* *Adam*, who is the stock, to the utmost ramifications of the human family. Not one human spirit is born into the world without this corruption of nature. All are impure and unholy; and from this principle of depravity all transgression is produced; and from this corruption of nature God alone can save.
The *Septuagint*, in the *Codex Alexandrinus*, reads the verse thus: Τις γαρ εσται καθαρο· απο ῥυπου; ουδε εἱς, εαν και μιας ἡμερας γενηται ὁ βιος αυτου επι της γης; "Who is pure from corruption? Not one, although he had lived but one day upon the earth."

Verse [Job 14:5](../../../kjv/job/14/5). ***Seeing his days*****are*****determined*** — The general *term* of human life is fixed by God himself; in vain are all attempts to prolong it beyond this term. Several attempts have been made in all nations to find an *elixir* that would expel all the seeds of disease, and keep men in continual health; but all these attempts have failed. *Basil, Valentine, Norton, Dastin, Ripley,* *Sandivogius, Artephius, Geber, Van Helmont, Paracelsus,* *Philalethes*, and several others, both in Europe and Asia, have written copiously on the subject, and have endeavoured to prove that a *tincture* might be produced, by which all *imperfect metals* may be transmuted into *perfect*; and an *elixir* by which the *human* *body* may be kept in a state of endless repair and health. And these profess to teach the method by which this *tincture* and this *elixir* may be made! Yet all these are dead; and dead, for aught we know, comparatively young! *Artephius* is, indeed, said to have lived *ninety* years, which is probable; but some of his foolish disciples, to give credit to their thriftless craft, added another *cipher*, and made his age *nine hundred*! Man may endeavour to pass the *bound*; and God may, here and there, produce a *Thomas Parr*, who died in 1635, aged *one hundred* and *fifty-two*; and a *Henry Jenkins,* who died in 1670, aged *one hundred* and *sixty-nine*; but these are rare instances, and do not affect the general term. Nor can death be avoided. *Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return*, is the *law*, and that will ever render nugatory all such pretended *tinctures* and *elixirs*.
But, although man *cannot pass his appointed bounds*, yet he may so live as *never to reach them*; for folly and wickedness abridge the term of human life; and therefore the psalmist says, *Bloody* *and deceitful men shall not live out HALF their days*, [Psalms 55:23](../../../kjv/psalms/55/23), for by indolence, intemperance, and disorderly passions, the life of man is shortened in cases innumerable. We are not to understand the *bounds* as applying to *individuals*, but to the *race* in general. Perhaps there is no case in which God has determined absolutely that man's age shall be so long, and shall neither be more nor less. The contrary supposition involves innumerable absurdities.

Verse [Job 14:6](../../../kjv/job/14/6). ***Turn from him, that he may rest*** — Cease to try him by afflictions and distresses, that he may enjoy some of the comforts of life, before he be removed from it: and thus, like a *hireling*, who is permitted by his master to take a little repose in the heat of the day, from severe labour, I shall also have a breathing time from affliction, before I come to that bound over which I cannot pass. See [Job 10:20](../../../kjv/job/10/20), where there is a similar request.

Verse [Job 14:7](../../../kjv/job/14/7). ***For there is hope of a tree*** — We must not, says *Calmet*, understand this of an *old tree*, the stem and roots of which are *dried up* and *rotted*: but there are some trees which grow from *cuttings*, and some which, though pulled out of the earth, and having had their roots dried and withered by long exposure to the sun and wind, will, on being replanted, take root and resume their verdure. There are also certain trees, the fibres of which are so solid, that if after several years they be steeped in water, they resume their vigour, the tubes dilate, and the blossoms or flowers which were attached to them expand; as I have often witnessed in what is called the *rose of Jericho*. There are few trees which will not send forth new shoots, when the stock is cut down level with the earth.

Verse [Job 14:9](../../../kjv/job/14/9). ***Through the scent of water it will bud*** — A fine metaphor: the water acts upon the decaying and perishing tree, as strong and powerful odours from musk, otto of roses, ammonia, &c., act on a fainting or swooning person.

Verse [Job 14:10](../../../kjv/job/14/10). ***But man dieth*** — No human being ever can spring from the dead body of man; that wasteth away, corrupts, and is dissolved; for the man dies; and when he breathes out his last breath, and his body is reduced to dust, then, *where is he*? There is a beautiful verse in the Persian poet *Khosroo*, that is not unlike this saying of Job: -
And *Fate*, by *Echo*, gave me back
This short but just reply, *Ah, where?*

Verse [Job 14:11](../../../kjv/job/14/11). ***The waters fail from the sea*** — I believe this refers to *evaporation*, and nothing else. As the waters are evaporated from the sea, and the river in passing over the sandy desert is partly exsiccated, and partly absorbed; and yet the waters of the sea are not exhausted, as these vapours, being condensed, fall down in rain, and by means of rivers return again into the sea: so man is imperceptibly removed from his fellows by death and dissolution; yet the human race is still continued, the population of the earth being kept up by perpetual generations.

Verse [Job 14:12](../../../kjv/job/14/12). ***So man lieth down*** — He falls asleep in his bed of earth.
***And riseth not*** — Men shall not, like cut down trees and plants, reproduce their like; nor shall they arise till the heavens are no more, till the earth and all its works are burnt up, and the general resurrection of human beings shall take place. Surely it would be difficult to twist this passage to the denial of the resurrection of the body. Neither can these expressions be fairly understood as implying Job's belief in the *materiality* of the soul, and that the whole man *sleeps* from the day of his death to the morning of the resurrection. We have already seen that Job makes a distinction between the animal life and rational soul in man; and it is most certain that the doctrine of the *materiality* *of the soul*, and its *sleep* till the resurrection, has no place in the sacred records. There is a most beautiful passage to the same purpose, and with the same imagery, in Moschus's epitaph on the death of Bion: -
Αι, αι ται μαλαχαι μεν επαν κατα καπον ολωνται,
Η τα χλωρα σελινα, το τ' ευθαλες ουλον ανηθον,
Ὑστερον αυ ζωοντι, και εις ετος αλλο φυοντι·
Αμμες δ', οἱ μεγαλοι, και καρτεροι, η σοφοι ανδρες,
Ὁπποτε πρωτα θανωμες, ανακοοι εν χθονι κοιλα
Εὑδομες ευ μαλα μακρον, ατερμονα, νηγρετον ὑπνον.
*Idyll*. iii., ver. 100.

Alas! alas! the mallows, when they die,
Or garden herbs, and sweet Anethum's pride,
Blooming in vigour, wake again to life,
And flourish beauteous through another year:
But we, the great, the mighty, and the wise,
When once we die, unknown in earth's dark womb
Sleep long and drear, the endless sleep of death.
J. B. B. C.

A more cold and comfortless philosophy was never invented. The next verse shows that Job did not entertain this view of the subject.

Verse [Job 14:13](../../../kjv/job/14/13). ***O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave*** — Dreadful as death is to others, I shall esteem it a high privilege; it will be to me a covert from the wind and from the tempest of this affliction and distress.
***Keep me secret*** — Hide my soul with thyself, where my enemies cannot invade my repose; or, as the poet expresses it: -
***That thou wouldest appoint me a set time*** — As he had spoken of the death of his body before, and the secreting of his spirit in the invisible world, he must refer here to the *resurrection*; for what else can be said to be an object of desire to one whose body is mingled with the dust?
***And remember me!*** — When my body has paid that debt of death which it owes to thy Divine justice, and the morning of the resurrection is come, when it may be said thy *wrath*, אפך appecha, "thy displeasure," against the body is past, it having suffered the sentence denounced by thyself: *Dust thou art, and unto dust thou* *shalt return*, for *in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely* *die*; then *remember me*-raise my body, unite my spirit to it, and receive both into thy glory for ever.

Verse [Job 14:14](../../../kjv/job/14/14). ***If a man die, shall he live*****again?**] The *Chaldee* translates, If a wicked man die, can he ever live again? or, *he* *can never live again*. The *Syriac* and *Arabic* thus: "If a man die, shall he revive? Yea, all the days of his youth he awaits till his old age come." The *Septuagint*: "If a man die, shall he live, having accomplished the days of his life? I will endure till I live again." Here is no doubt, but a strong persuasion, of the certainty of the general resurrection.
***All the days of my appointed time*** — צבאי *tsebai*, "of my warfare;" see on [Job 7:1](../../../kjv/job/7/1). *Will I await till* חליפתי chaliphathi, my renovation, come. This word is used to denote the springing again of grass, [Psalms 90:5-6](../../../kjv/psalms/90/5-6), after it had once withered, which is in itself a very expressive emblem of the resurrection.

Verse [Job 14:15](../../../kjv/job/14/15). ***Thou shalt call*** — Thou shalt say *There shall be time no* *longer: Awake, ye dead! and come to judgment*!
***And I will answer thee*** — My dissolved frame shall be united at thy call; and body and soul shall be rejoined.
***Thou wilt have a desire*** — תכסף *tichsoph*, "Thou wilt *pant* with desire;" or, "Thou wilt *yearn* over the work of thy hands." God has subjected the creature to vanity, in *hope*; having determined the resurrection. Man is one of the noblest works of God. He has exhibited him as a master-piece of his creative skill, power, and goodness. Nothing less than the strongest call upon justice could have induced him thus to destroy the work of his hands. No wonder that he has an earnest desire towards it; and that although *man dies, and is as water spilt upon the ground that* *cannot be gathered up again; yet doth he devise means that his* *banished be not expelled from him*. Even God is represented as *earnestly longing* for the ultimate reviviscence of the sleeping dust. He cannot, he will not, forget the work of his hands.

Verse [Job 14:16](../../../kjv/job/14/16). ***For now thou numberest my steps*** — כי עתה *ki attah,* *ALTHOUGH thou*, &c. Though thou, by thy conduct towards me, seemest bent on my utter destruction, yet thou delightest in mercy, and I shall be saved.

Verse [Job 14:17](../../../kjv/job/14/17). ***My transgression is sealed up in a bag*** — An allusion to the custom of collecting evidence of state transgressions, *sealing* *them up in a bag*, and presenting them to the judges and officers of state to be examined, in order to trial and judgment. Just at this time (July, 1820) charges of state transgressions, *sealed up* *in a GREEN BAG*, and presented to the two houses of parliament, for the examination of a secret committee, are making a considerable noise in the land. Some suppose the allusion is to *money sealed up* *in bags*; which is common in the East. This includes two ideas:
1. Job's transgressions were all *numbered*; not one was passed by.
2. They were sealed up; so that none of them could be lost. These bags were indifferently *sewed* or *sealed*, the two words in the text.

Verse [Job 14:18](../../../kjv/job/14/18). ***The mountain falling cometh to naught*** — Every thing in nature is exposed to mutability and decay:-even mountains themselves may fall from their bases, and be dashed to pieces; or be suddenly swallowed up by an earthquake; and, by the same means, the strongest and most massive rocks may be removed.

Verse [Job 14:19](../../../kjv/job/14/19). ***The waters wear the stones*** — Even the common stones are affected in the same way. Were even *earthquakes* and violent concussions of nature wanting, the action of *water*, either *running* over them as a *stream*, or *even falling upon them* in *drops*, will wear these stones. Hence the proverb: -
***Thou washest away the things*** — Alluding to sudden falls of rain occasioning floods, by which the fruits of the earth are swept away; and thus *the hope of man*- the *grain* for his household, and *provender* for his cattle, *is destroyed*.

Verse [Job 14:20](../../../kjv/job/14/20). ***Thou prevailest for ever against him*** — It is impossible for him to withstand thee: every stroke of thine brings him down.
***Thou changest his countenance*** — Probably an allusion to the custom of *covering the face*, when the person was condemned, and *sending him away* to execution. See the case of Haman, in the note on *Esther*, [Esther 7:8](../../../kjv/esther/7/8).

Verse [Job 14:21](../../../kjv/job/14/21). ***His sons come to honour*** — When dead, he is equally indifferent and unconscious whether his children have met with a splendid or oppressive lot in life; for as to this world, when man dies, *in that day all his thoughts perish*.

Verse [Job 14:22](../../../kjv/job/14/22). ***But his flesh upon him shall have pain*** — The sum of the life of man is this, *pain of body* and *distress of soul*; and he is seldom without the one or the other, and often oppressed by both. Thus ends Job's discourse on the miserable state and condition of man.
THE last verse of the preceding chapter has been differently translated and explained.
Mr. *Good's* version is the following, which he vindicates in a learned note: -
This version is, in my opinion, the most natural yet offered. The *Syriac* and *Arabic* present nearly the same sense: "But his body shall grieve over him; and his soul be astonished over him."
*Coverdale* follows the Vulgate: *Whyle he lyveth his flesh must* *have travayle; and whyle the soul is in him, he must be in sorowe*.
On [Job 14:2](../../../kjv/job/14/2). I have referred to the following beautiful lines, which illustrate these finely figurative texts: -
*He cometh forth as a FLOWER, and is CUT Down; he fleeth also as* *a shadow, and continueth not*.
*All flesh is GRASS, and all the goodliness thereof is as the* *FLOWER of the field*.
*The GRASS withereth, the FLOWER fadeth; but the word of our God* *shall stand for ever*.
The morning flowers display their sweets,
And gay their silken leaves unfold;
As careless of the noonday heats,
As fearless of the evening cold.

Nipp'd by the wind's untimely blast,
Parch'd by the sun's directer ray,
The momentary glories waste,
The short-lived beauties die away.

So blooms the human face divine,
When youth its pride of beauty shows;
Fairer than spring the colours shine,
And sweeter than the virgin rose.

Or worn by slowly-rolling years,
Or broke by sickness in a day,
The fading glory disappears,
The short-lived beauties die away.

Yet these, new rising from the tomb,
With lustre brighter far shall shine;
Revive with ever-during bloom,
Safe from diseases and decline.

Let sickness blast, let death devour,
If heaven must recompense our pains:
Perish the grass and fade the flower,
If firm the word of God remains.

See a Collection of Poems on Sundry Occasions, by the Rev. *Samuel* *Wesley*, Master of *Blundell's* School, *Tiverton*.

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