Job 14:12

Amplified Bible

So man lies down and does not rise [again]. Until the heavens are no longer, The dead will not awake nor be raised from their sleep.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
so people lie down never to rise again.They will not wake up until the heavens are no more;they will not stir from their sleep.

Hebrew Names Version
So man lies down and doesn't rise; Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, Nor be roused out of their sleep.

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

English Standard Version
so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.

New Century Version
In the same way, we lie down and do not rise again; we will not get up or be awakened until the heavens disappear.

New English Translation
so man lies down and does not rise; until the heavens are no more, they will not awake nor arise from their sleep.

New American Standard Bible
So a man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens no longer exist, He will not awake nor be woken from his sleep.

World English Bible
So man lies down and doesn't rise; Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, Nor be roused out of their sleep.

Geneva Bible (1587)
So man sleepeth and riseth not: for hee shall not wake againe, nor be raised from his sleepe till the heauen be no more.

Legacy Standard Bible
So man lies down and does not rise.Until the heavens are no longer,He will not awake nor be aroused out of his sleep.

Berean Standard Bible
so man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens are no more, he will not be awakened or roused from sleep.

Contemporary English Version
we fall into the sleep of death, never to rise again, until the sky disappears.

Complete Jewish Bible
so a person lies down and doesn't arise — until the sky no longer exists; it will not awaken, it won't be roused from its sleep.

Darby Translation
So man lieth down, and riseth not again; till the heavens be no more, they do not awake, nor are raised out of their sleep.

Easy-to-Read Version
so people lose their lives, never to live again. The skies will all pass away before they rise from death. The skies will all disappear before anyone wakes up from that sleep!

George Lamsa Translation
So man who lies down does not rise again; until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.

Good News Translation
people die, never to rise. They will never wake up while the sky endures; they will never stir from their sleep.

Lexham English Bible
so a man lies down, and he does not arise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not awaken, and they will not be roused out of their sleep.

Literal Translation
even so man lies down and does not rise until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
but when man slepeth, he ryseth not agayne, vntill the heauen perish: he shal not wake vp ner ryse out of his slepe.

American Standard Version
So man lieth down and riseth not: Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, Nor be roused out of their sleep.

Bible in Basic English
So man goes down to his last resting-place and comes not again: till the heavens come to an end, they will not be awake or come out of their sleep.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
So man lieth down and riseth not;

King James Version (1611)
So man lyeth downe, and riseth not, till the heauens be no more, they shall not awake; nor bee raised out of their sleepe.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
So man after he is asleepe ryseth not, he shall not wake tyll the heauens be no more, nor rise out of his sleepe.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And man that has lain down in death shall certainly not rise again till the heaven be dissolved, and they shall not awake from their sleep.

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

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
so a man, whanne he hath slept, `that is, deed, he schal not rise ayen, til heuene be brokun, `that is, be maad newe; he schal not wake, nether he schal ryse togidere fro his sleep.

Update Bible Version
So man lies down and does not rise: Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, Nor be roused out of their sleep.

Webster's Bible Translation
So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens [shall be] no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

New King James Version
So man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, They will not awake Nor be roused from their sleep.

New Living Translation
people are laid to rest and do not rise again. Until the heavens are no more, they will not wake up nor be roused from their sleep.

New Life Bible
so man lies down and does not get up again. Until the heavens are no more, he will not wake up or come out of his sleep.

New Revised Standard
so mortals lie down and do not rise again; until the heavens are no more, they will not awake or be roused out of their sleep.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So, a man, hath lain down, and shall not arise, until there are no heavens, they shall not awake, nor be roused up out of their sleep.

Douay-Rheims Bible
So man when he is fallen asleep shall not rise again; till the heavens be broken, he shall not awake, nor rise up out of his sleep.

Revised Standard Version
so man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake, or be roused out of his sleep.

Young's Literal Translation
And man hath lain down, and riseth not, Till the wearing out of the heavens they awake not, Nor are roused from their sleep.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
So man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens are no longer, He will not awake nor be aroused out of his sleep.

Contextual Overview

⁷"For there is hope for a tree, If it is cut down, that it will sprout again, And that the shoots of it will not cease nor fail, [but there is no such hope for man]. ⁸"Though its roots grow old in the earth And its stump dies in the dry soil, ⁹Yet at the scent of water [the stump of the tree] will flourish And bring forth sprigs and shoots like a seedling. ¹⁰"But [the brave, strong] man must die and lie face down; Man breathes his last, and where is he? ¹¹"As water evaporates from the sea, And a river drains and dries up, ¹²So man lies down and does not rise [again]. Until the heavens are no longer, The dead will not awake nor be raised from their sleep.¹³"Oh, that You would hide me in Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead), That You would conceal me until Your wrath is past, That You would set a definite time and then remember me [and in Your lovingkindness imprint me on your heart]! ¹⁴"If a man dies, will he live again? I will wait all the days of my struggle Until my change and release will come. ¹⁵"[Then] You will call, and I will answer You; You will long for [me] the work of Your hands.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

So man: Job 10:21, Job 10:22, Job 30:23, Ecclesiastes 3:19-21, Ecclesiastes 12:5

till the heavens: Job 19:25-27, Psalms 102:26, Isaiah 51:6, Isaiah 65:17, Isaiah 66:22, Matthew 24:35, Acts 3:21, Romans 8:20, 2 Peter 3:7, 2 Peter 3:10-13, Revelation 20:11, Revelation 21:1

awake: Job 3:13, Job 7:21, Isaiah 26:19, Daniel 12:2, John 11:11-13, Ephesians 5:14, 1 Thessalonians 4:14, 1 Thessalonians 4:15

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 14:20 - slept 2 Kings 4:31 - not awaked Job 14:10 - where is he Job 27:19 - he is not Psalms 17:15 - I awake Luke 7:14 - Young

Cross-References

Genesis 11:27
Now these are the records of the descendants of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram (Abraham), Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot.

Genesis 12:5
Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had acquired, and the people (servants) which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan,

Genesis 14:9
against Chedorlaomer king of Elam and Tidal king of Goiim and Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five.

Genesis 14:11
Then the victors took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food supply and provisions and left.

Genesis 14:12
And they also took [captive] Lot, Abram's nephew, and his possessions and left, for he was living in Sodom.

Genesis 14:13
Then a survivor who had escaped [from the invading forces on the other side of the Jordan] came and told Abram the Hebrew. Now he was living by the terebinths (oaks) of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner—they were allies of Abram.

Genesis 14:17
Then after Abram's return from the defeat (slaughter) of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley).

Genesis 14:19
And Melchizedek blessed Abram and said, "Blessed (joyful, favored) be Abram by God Most High, Creator and Possessor of heaven and earth;

Numbers 16:26
And he said to the congregation, "Get away from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, or you will be swept away in all their sin."

Job 9:23
"When [His] scourge kills suddenly, He mocks at the despair of the innocent.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

So man lieth down,.... Or "and", or "but man lieth down" b; in the grave when he dies, as on a bed, and takes his rest from all his labours, toil and troubles, and lies asleep, and continues so till the resurrection morn:

and riseth not; from off his bed, or comes not out of his grave into this world, to the place where he was, and to be engaged in the affairs of life he was before, and never by his own power; and whenever he will rise, it will be by the power of God, and this not till the last day, when Christ shall appear in person to judge the world; and then the dead in Christ will rise first, at the beginning of the thousand years, and the wicked at the end of them:

till the heavens [be] no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep; for so the words are to be read, not in connection with those that go before, but with the last clauses; though the sense is much the same either way, which is, that those who are fallen asleep by death, and lie sleeping in their graves, and on their beds, these shall neither awake of themselves, nor be awaked by others, "till the heavens be no more"; that is, never, so as to awake and arise of themselves, and to this natural life, and to be concerned in the business of it; which sometimes seems to be the sense of this phrase, see Psalms 89:29 Matthew 5:18; or, as some render it, "till the heavens are wore out", or "waxen old" c; as they will like a garment, and be folded up, and laid aside, as to their present use, Psalms 102:26; or till they shall vanish away, and be no more, as to their present form, quality, and use, though they may exist as to substance; and when this will be the case, as it will be when the Judge shall appear, when Christ shall come a second time to judge the world; then the earth and heaven will flee away from his face, the earth and its works shall be burnt up, and the heavens shall pass away with great noise; and then, and not till then, will the dead, or those that are asleep in their graves, be awaked by the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, and they shall be raised from their sleepy beds, awake and arise, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

b ואיש "et vir", Pagninus, Montanus, Beza, Schmidt; "at vir", Cocceius. c עד בלתי "donec atteratur eoelum", V. L. so some in Bar Tzemach, though disapproved of by him as ungrammatical.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

So man lieth down, and riseth not - He lies down in the grave and does not rise again on the earth.

Till the heavens be no more - That is, never; for such is the fair interpretation of the passage, and this accords with its design. Job means to say, undoubtedly, that man would never appear again in the land of the living; that he would not spring up from the grave, as a sprout does from a fallen tree; and that when he dies, he goes away from the earth never to return. Whether he believed in a future state, or in the future resurrection, is another question, and one that cannot be determined from this passage. His complaint is, that the present life is short, and that man when he has once passed through it cannot return to enjoy it again, if it has been unhappy; and he asks, therefore, why, since it was so short, man might not be permitted to enjoy it without molestation. It does not follow from this passage that he believed that the heavens ever would be no more, or would pass away.

The heavens are the most permanent and enduring objects of which we have any knowledge, and are, therefore, used to denote permanency and eternity; see Psalms 89:36-37. This verse, therefore, is simply a solemn declaration of the belief of Job that when man dies, he dies to live no more on the earth. Of the truth of this, no one can doubt - and the truth is as important and affecting as it is undoubted. If man could come back again, life would be a different thing. If he could revisit the earth to repair the evils of a wicked life, to repent of his errors, to make amends for his faults, and to make preparation for a future world, it would be a different thing to live, and a different thing to die. But when he travels over the road of life, he treads a path which is not to be traversed again. When he neglects an opportunity to do good, it cannot be recalled. When he commits an offence, he cannot come back to repair the evil. He falls, and dies, and lives no more. He enters on other scenes, and is amidst the retributions of another state. How important then to secure the passing moment, and to be prepared to go hence, to return no more! The idea here presented is one that is common with the poets. Thus, Horace says:

Nobis, cum semel occidit brevis lux,

Nox est perpetua una dormienda.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 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.