---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Job 14"
description: "CHAPTER 14   :-. JOB PASSES
FROM HIS OWN
TO THE COMMON
MISERY OF MANKIND. 1. woman—feeble, and in the
East looked down upon (Genesis 2:21).
Man being born"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/job/14"
---

CHAPTER 14

. JOB PASSES
FROM HIS OWN
TO THE COMMON
MISERY OF MANKIND.

**1. woman**—feeble, and in the
East looked down upon ([Genesis 2:21](../../../kjv/genesis/2/21)).
Man being born of one so frail must be frail himself ([Genesis 2:21](../../../kjv/genesis/2/21)).
**few days**— ([Genesis 47:9](../../../kjv/genesis/47/9);
[Psalms 90:10](../../../kjv/psalms/90/10)). Literally, "short
of days." Man is the reverse of full of days and short of
trouble.

**2.** (; see on [Job 8:9](../../../kjv/job/8/9)).

**3. open . . . eyes upon**—Not in
graciousness; but, "Dost Thou sharply fix Thine eyes upon?"
(See on [Job 7:20](../../../kjv/job/7/20); also see on
[Job 1:7](../../../kjv/job/1/7)). Is one so frail as man
worthy of such constant watching on the part of God? ([Job 1:7](../../../kjv/job/1/7)).
**me**—so frail.
**thee**—so almighty.

**4.** A plea in mitigation. The
doctrine of original sin was held from the first. "Man is
unclean from his birth, how then can God expect perfect cleanness
from such a one and deal so severely with me?"

**5. determined**— ([Job 7:1](../../../kjv/job/7/1);
[Isaiah 10:23](../../../kjv/isaiah/10/23); [Daniel 9:27](../../../kjv/daniel/9/27);
[Daniel 11:36](../../../kjv/daniel/11/36)).

**6. Turn**—namely, Thine eyes
from watching him so jealously ().
**hireling**— ().
**accomplish**—rather,
"enjoy." That he may at least enjoy the measure of rest of
the hireling who though hard worked reconciles himself to his lot by
the hope of his rest and reward [UMBREIT].

**7.** Man may the more claim a
peaceful life, since, when separated from it by death, he never
returns to it. This does not deny a future life, but a return to the
*present condition* of life. Job plainly hopes for a future
state ([Job 14:13](../../../kjv/job/14/13); [Job 7:2](../../../kjv/job/7/2)).
Still, it is but vague and trembling *hope,* not *assurance;*
excepting the one bright glimpse in [Job 7:2](../../../kjv/job/7/2). The Gospel revelation was needed to change fears, hopes,
and glimpses into clear and definite certainties.

**9. scent**—exhalation, which,
rather than the humidity of water, causes the tree to germinate. In
the antithesis to *man* the *tree* is personified, and
volition is poetically ascribed to it.
**like a plant**—"as
if newly planted" [UMBREIT];
not as if trees and plants were a different species.

**10. man . . . man**—Two distinct
*Hebrew* words are here used; *Geber,* a *mighty* man:
though mighty, he dies. *Adam,* a man of earth: because earthly,
he gives up the ghost.
**wasteth**—is reduced to
nothing: he cannot revive in the present state, as the tree does. The
cypress and pine, which when cut down do not revive, were the symbols
of death among the Romans.

**11. sea**—that is, a lake, or
pool formed from the outspreading of a river. Job lived near the
Euphrates: and "sea" is applied to it ([Jeremiah 51:36](../../../kjv/jeremiah/51/36);
[Isaiah 27:1](../../../kjv/isaiah/27/1)). So of the Nile ([Isaiah 27:1](../../../kjv/isaiah/27/1)).
**fail**—utterly
disappeared by drying up. The rugged channel of the once flowing
water answers to the outstretched corpse ("lieth down," [Isaiah 27:1](../../../kjv/isaiah/27/1)) of the once living man.

**12. heavens be no more**—This
only implies that Job had no hope of living again in the *present*
order of the world, not that he had no hope of life again in a new
order of things. [Psalms 102:26](../../../kjv/psalms/102/26)
proves that early under the Old Testament the dissolution of the
present earth and heavens was expected (compare [Psalms 102:26](../../../kjv/psalms/102/26)). Enoch *before Job* had implied that the "saints
shall live again" ([Judges 1:14](../../../kjv/judges/1/14);
[Hebrews 11:13-16](../../../kjv/hebrews/11/13-16)). Even if, by
this phrase, *Job* meant "never" ([Hebrews 11:13-58](../../../kjv/hebrews/11/13-58)) in his gloomier state of feelings, yet the *Holy Ghost*
has made him unconsciously ([1 Peter 1:11](../../../kjv/1-peter/1/11);
[1 Peter 1:12](../../../kjv/1-peter/1/12)) use language expressing
the truth, that the resurrection is to be preceded by the dissolution
of the heavens. In [1 Peter 1:12](../../../kjv/1-peter/1/12) he plainly passes to brighter hopes of a world to come.

**13.** Job wishes to be kept hidden
in the grave until God's wrath against him shall have passed away. So
while God's wrath is visiting the earth for the abounding apostasy
which is to precede the second coming, God's people shall be hidden
against the resurrection glory ().
**set time**—a decreed time
([Acts 1:7](../../../kjv/acts/1/7)).

**14. shall he live?**—The answer
implied is, *There is a hope that he shall, though not in the
present order of life,* as is shown by the words following. Job
had denied ([Job 14:10-12](../../../kjv/job/14/10-12))
that man shall live again in this present world. But hoping for a
"set time," when God shall remember and raise him out of
the hiding-place of the grave ([Job 14:10-18](../../../kjv/job/14/10-18)), he declares himself willing to "wait all the days of
his appointed time" of continuance in the grave, however long
and hard that may be.
**appointed time**—literally,
"warfare, hard service"; imlying the *hardship* of
being shut out from the realms of life, light, and God for the time
he shall be in the grave ([Job 7:1](../../../kjv/job/7/1)).
**change**—my release, as a
soldier at his post released from duty by the relieving guard (see on
[Job 14:1](../../../kjv/job/14/1)) [UMBREIT
and GESENIUS], but
elsewhere GESENIUS
explains it, "renovation," as of plants in spring ([Job 14:1](../../../kjv/job/14/1)), but this does not accord so well with the metaphor in
"appointed time" or "warfare."

**15.** namely, at the resurrection
([John 5:28](../../../kjv/john/5/28); [Psalms 17:15](../../../kjv/psalms/17/15)).
**have a desire to**—literally,
"become pale with anxious desire:" the same word is
translated "sore longedst after" ([Genesis 31:30](../../../kjv/genesis/31/30);
[Psalms 84:2](../../../kjv/psalms/84/2)), implying the utter
unlikelihood that God would leave in oblivion the "creature of
His own hands so fearfully and wonderfully made." It is objected
that if Job knew of a future retribution, he would make it the
*leading* topic in solving the problem of the permitted
afflictions of the righteous. But, (1) He did not intend to exceed
the limits of what was *clearly revealed;* the doctrine was then
in a vague form only; (2) The doctrine of God's moral government in
*this* life, even *independently of the future,* needed
vindication.

**16.** Rather, "Yea, thou wilt
number my steps, and wilt not (as now) jealously watch over my sin."
Thenceforward, instead of severe watching for every sin of Job, God
will guard him against every sin.
**number . . . steps**—that
is, minutely attend to them, that they may not wander [UMBREIT]
([1 Samuel 2:9](../../../kjv/1-samuel/2/9); [Psalms 37:23](../../../kjv/psalms/37/23)).

**17. sealed up**— (). Is shut up in eternal oblivion, that is, God thenceforth
will think no more of my former sins. *To cover* sins is to
*completely forgive* them ([Psalms 32:1](../../../kjv/psalms/32/1);
[Psalms 85:2](../../../kjv/psalms/85/2)). Purses of money in the
East are usually sealed.
**sewest up**—rather,
"coverest"; akin to an *Arabic* word, "to color
over," to forget wholly.

**18. cometh to naught**—literally,
"fadeth"; a poetical image from a leaf (). Here Job falls back into his gloomy bodings as to the
grave. Instead of "and surely," translate "yet";
marking the transition from his brighter hopes. Even the solid
mountain falls and crumbles away; man therefore cannot "hope"
to escape decay or to live again in the present world ().
**out of his place**—so man
([Psalms 103:16](../../../kjv/psalms/103/16)).

**19.** The *Hebrew* order is
more forcible: "Stones themselves are worn away by water."
**things which grow out
of**—rather, "*floods* wash away the dust of the
earth." There is a gradation from "mountains" to
"rocks" ([Job 14:18](../../../kjv/job/14/18)),
then "stones," then last "dust of the earth";
thus the solid mountain at last disappears utterly.

**20. prevailest**—dost overpower
by superior strength.
**passeth**—dieth.
**changest countenance**—the
change in the visage at death. Differently ().

**21.** One striking trait is
selected from the sad picture of the severance of the dead from all
that passes in the world ([Ecclesiastes 9:5](../../../kjv/ecclesiastes/9/5)),
namely, the utter separation of parents and children.

**22.** "Flesh" and "soul"
describe the whole man. Scripture rests the hope of a future life,
not on the inherent immortality of the soul, but on the restoration
of the *body* with the soul. In the unseen world, Job in a
gloomy frame anticipates, man shall be limited to the thought of his
own misery. "Pain is by personification, from *our*
feelings while *alive,* attributed to the flesh and soul, as if
the man could feel in his body when dead. It is the dead in general,
not the wicked, who are meant here."

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