Job 14:5

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

his days: Job 14:14, Job 7:1, Job 12:10, Psalms 39:4, Daniel 5:26, Daniel 5:30, Daniel 9:24, Daniel 11:36, Luke 12:20, Acts 17:26, Hebrews 9:27

the number: Job 21:21

thou hast: Job 23:13, Job 23:14, Psalms 104:9, Psalms 104:29, Daniel 4:35, Revelation 1:18, Revelation 3:7

Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 26:10 - his day Job 16:22 - a few years Job 30:23 - the house Psalms 39:13 - spare Ecclesiastes 3:2 - and a time Ecclesiastes 8:8 - is no Isaiah 38:5 - I will

Cross-References

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 14:11
They took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way.

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

Genesis 14:23
that I will not take a thread nor a shoe-latchet nor anything that is yours, lest you should say, 'I have made Abram rich.'

Genesis 15:20
the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,

Deuteronomy 1:4
after he had struck Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei.

Deuteronomy 3:11
(For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of the Rephaim; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; isn't it in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length of it, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.)

Deuteronomy 3:20
until Yahweh give rest to your brothers, as to you, and they also possess the land which Yahweh your God gives them beyond the Jordan: then shall you return every man to his possession, which I have given you.

Deuteronomy 3:22
You shall not fear them; for Yahweh your God, he it is who fights for you.

Joshua 12:4
and the border of Og king of Bashan, of the remnant of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Seeing his days [are] determined,.... Or "cut out" i, exactly and precisely, how many he shall live, and what shall befall him every day of his life; whose life, because of the shortness of it, is rather measured by days than vents:

the number of his months [are] with thee; before him, in his sight, in his account, and fixed and settled by him:

thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass; the boundaries of his life the period of his days, beyond which he cannot go; the term of man's life is so peremptorily fixed by God, that he cannot die sooner, nor live longer, than he has determined he should; as the time of a man's birth, so the time of his death is according to the purpose of God; and all intervening moments and articles of time, and all things that befall a man throughout the whole course of his life, all fall under the appointment of God, and are according to his determinate will; and when God requires of man his soul, no one has power over his spirit to retain it one moment; yet this hinders not the use of means for the preservation and comfort of life, since these are settled as well as the end, and are under the divine direction: the word for bounds signifies sometimes "statutes" k: though not to be understood of laws appointed by God, either of a moral or ceremonial nature; but here it signifies set, stated, appointed times l Seneca m says the same thing;

"there is a boundary fixed for every man, which always remains where it is set, nor can any move it forward by any means whatsoever.''

i חרוצים "exacte praefiniti sunt", Tigurine version. k חקו "statuta ejus", V. L. Mercerus, Schmidt. l "Stata tempora", Beza. m Consolat. ad Marciam, c. 20.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Seeing his days - are “determined” Since man is so frail, and so short-lived, let him alone, that he may pass his little time with some degree of comfort and then die; see the notes at Job 7:19-21. The word “determined” here means “fixed, settled.” God has fixed the number of his days, so that they cannot be exceeded; compare the notes at Isaiah 10:23, and notes at Psalms 90:10.

The number of his months are with thee - Thou hast the ordering of them, or they are determined by thee.

Thou hast appointed his bounds - Thou hast fixed a limit, or hast determined the time which he is to live, and he cannot go beyond it. There is no elixir of life that can prolong our days beyond that period. Soon we shall come to that outer limit of life, and then we must die. When that is we know not, and it is not desirable to know. It is better that it should be concealed. If we knew that it was near, it would fill us with gloom, and deter us from the efforts and the plans of life altogether. If it were remote, we should be careless and secure, and should think there was time enough yet to prepare to die. As it is, we know that the period is not very far distant; we know not but that it may be very near at hand, and we would be always ready.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 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, 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.