Job 14:3

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

And dost: Job 7:17, Job 7:18, Job 13:25, Psalms 144:3

bringest: Job 9:19, Job 9:20, Job 9:32, Job 13:27, Psalms 143:2, Romans 3:19

Reciprocal: Job 7:8 - thine eyes Job 22:4 - will he enter Job 25:4 - how can

Cross-References

Genesis 19:24
Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.

Numbers 34:12
and the border shall go down to the Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the Salt Sea. This shall be your land according to the borders of it round about.

Deuteronomy 3:17
the Arabah also, and the Jordan and the border [of it], from Chinnereth even to the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, under the slopes of Pisgah eastward.

Joshua 3:16
that the waters which came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap, a great way off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those that went down toward the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho.

Psalms 107:34
And a fruitful land into a salt waste, For the wickedness of those who dwell in it.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And dost thou open thine eyes on such an one,.... So frail and feeble, so short lived and sorrowful, so soon and easily cut down and destroyed: and by opening of his eyes is not meant his providential care of men; whose eyes indeed are everywhere, run to and fro throughout the earth, and are careful of and provident for all sorts of men, which is very wonderful, Psalms 8:4; nor the displays of his special grace and favour towards his own peculiar people, on whom his eyes of love, grace, and mercy, are opened, and are never withdrawn from them, which is marvellous lovingkindness; but the exercise of rigorous justice in punishing, afflicting, and chastising with so much severity, as Job thought to be his own case; the eyes of God, as he thought, were set on him for evil, and not for good; he looked wistly on him, and in a very frowning manner; he sharpened his eye upon him, as the phrase is, Job 16:9; and as some render the word f here, looked narrowly into all his ways, and watched every motion and every step he took, and pursued him with great eagerness, and used him with great strictness in a way of justice, which he, a poor, weak creature, was not able to bear; which sense is confirmed by what follows:

and bringeth me into judgment with thee? by this it appears Job has a view to himself all along, and to the procedure of God against him, which he took to be in strict justice, and that was what he was not able to bear; he was not a match for God, being such a frail, weak, sinful, mortal creature; nor was God a man as he was, that they should come together in judgment, or be fit persons to contend together upon the foot of strict justice; sinful man can never be just with God upon this bottom, or be able to answer to one objection or charge of a thousand brought against him; and therefore, as every sensible man will deprecate God's entering into judgment with him, so Job here expostulates with God why he should bring him into judgment with him; when, as he fled to his grace and mercy, he should rather show that to him than in a rigorous manner deal with him.

f פקחת עיניך "super illo acuis oculos tuos", Cocceius; "super hune apertos vibras oculos", Schultens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one? - Is one so weak, so frail, so short-lived, worthy the constant vigilance of the infinite God? In Zechariah 12:4, the expression “to open the eyes” upon one, means to look angrily upon him. Here it means to observe or watch closely.

And bringest me into judgment with thee - Is it equal or proper that one so frail and feeble should be called to a trial with one so mighty as the infinite God? Does God seek a trial with one so much his inferior, and so unable to stand before him? This is language taken from courts of justice, and the meaning is, that the parties were wholly unequal, and that it was unworthy of God to maintain a controversy in this manner with feeble man. This is a favorite idea with Job, that there was no equality between him and God, and that the whole controversy was, therefore, conducted on his part with great disadvantage; compare the notes at Job 9:34-35.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 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.