Job 14:2

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹ "Man, who is born of a woman, Is of few days, and full of trouble. ² He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn't continue. ³ Do you open your eyes on such a one, And bring me into judgment with you? ⁴ Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. ⁵ Seeing his days are determined, The number of his months is with you, And you have appointed his bounds that he can't pass; ⁶ Look away from him, that he may rest, Until he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

like: Psalms 90:5-9, Psalms 92:7, Psalms 92:12, Psalms 103:15, Psalms 103:16, Isaiah 40:6-8, James 1:10, James 1:11, James 4:14, 1 Peter 1:24

fleeth: Job 8:9, Job 9:25, Job 9:26, 1 Chronicles 29:15, Psalms 102:11, Psalms 144:4, Ecclesiastes 8:13

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 4:19 - My head Job 4:19 - crushed Psalms 39:5 - Behold Psalms 90:6 - General Psalms 109:23 - gone Ecclesiastes 6:12 - the days of his vain life Isaiah 38:12 - have cut 1 Corinthians 7:29 - the time

Cross-References

Genesis 10:19
The border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as you go toward Gerar, to Gaza; as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, to Lasha.

Genesis 13:10
Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw all the plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before Yahweh destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of Yahweh, like the land of Egypt, as you go to Zoar.

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 the five.

Genesis 14:10
Now the valley of Siddim was full of tar pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and they fell there, and those who remained fled to the mountain.

Genesis 14:20
and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand." Abram gave him a tenth of all.

Deuteronomy 29:23
[and that] the whole land of it is sulfur, and salt, [and] a burning, [that] it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:

Deuteronomy 34:3
and the South, and the Plain of the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, to Zoar.

1 Samuel 13:18
and another company turned the way to Beth-horon; and another company turned the way of the border that looks down on the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.

Nehemiah 11:34
Hadid, Zeboim, Neballat,

Isaiah 15:5
My heart cries out for Moab; her nobles [flee] to Zoar, to Eglath-shelishi-yah: for by the ascent of Luhith with weeping they go up; for in the way of Horonaim they raise up a cry of destruction.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down,.... As the flower comes from the earth, so does man; as it comes out of the stalk, so man out of his mother's womb; as the flower flourishes for a while, and looks gay and beautiful, so man while in youth, in health and prosperity. Job, doubtless, has respect to his own case before his troubles came upon him, when he was possessed of all that substance, which made him the greatest man of the east; when his children were like olive plants around his table, and his servants at his command, and he in perfect health of body: and as a flower flourishes for a little while, and then withers; no sooner is it come to its full blow, but presently decays; such is the goodliness of man, it fades away whenever God blows a blast upon it; yea, he is easily and quickly cut down by death, like a beautiful flower cut with the knife, or cropped by the hand, or trampled upon by the foot, see Psalms 103:15;

he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not; either as the shadow of the evening, which is lost when night comes on; or the shadow on a dial plate, which is continually moving on; or, as the Jewish Rabbins say, as the shadow of a bird flying, which stays not, whereas the shadow of a wall, or of a tree, continues: a shadow is an empty thing, without substance, dark and obscure, variable and uncertain, declining, fleeting, and passing away; and so fitly resembles the life of a man, which is but a vapour, a bubble, yea, as nothing with God; is full of darkness, of ignorance, and of adversity, very fickle, changeable, and inconstant, and at most but of a short continuance.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down - Nothing can be more obvious and more beautiful than this, and the image has been employed by writers in all ages, but nowhere with more beauty, or with more frequency than in the Bible; see Isaiah 40:6; Psalms 37:2; Psalms 90:6; Psalms 103:15. Next to the Bible, it is probable that Shakespeare has employed the image with the most exquisite beauty of any poet:

This is the state of man; today he puts forth

The tender leaves of hope, tomorrow blossoms,

And bears his blushing honors thick upon him;

The third day comes a frost a killing frost,

And - when he thinks, good easy man, full surely

His greatness is a ripening - nips his root,

And then he falls.

Henry viii. Act iii. Sc. 2.

He fleeth also as a shadow - Another exquisite figure, and as true as it is beautiful. So the Psalmist:

My days are like a shadow that declineth.

Psalms 102:11.

Man is like to vanity;

His days are as a shadowy that passeth away.

Psalms 144:4.

The idea of Job is, that there is no substance, nothing that is permanent. A shadow moves on gently and silently, and is soon gone. It leaves no trace of its being, and returns no more. They who have watched the beautiful shadow of a cloud on a landscape, and have seen how rapidly it passes ever meadows and fields of grain, and rolls up the mountain side and disappears, will have a vivid conception of this figure. How gently yet how rapidly it moves. How soon it is gone. How void of impression is its course. Who can track its way; who can reach it? So man moves on. Soon he is gone; he leaves no trace of his being, and returns no more.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 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.