Bible Commentaries
Job 14

Why Can I Not Reach Him in Life? (13:20-14:6)

It is characteristic of the discussion that when Job reaches a climax in his protestation he turns directly to God (see Job 7:12; Job 10:2). Here again, without any transitional words, he addresses himself to the God whom he must necessarily regard as the author of his difficulty. And again, even in the depth of his uncertainty, he addresses him as still his Friend. He asks two gifts: relief from his suffering, and release from the paralyzing dread of God that would naturally hinder a man from presenting the kind of case he is outlining (vss, 20-21). The ideal situation for which he yearns is stated in verse 22 — a situation in which God would speak clearly and unequivocally and Job would be able to marshal his arguments in defense, or where Job would present his complaint and God would give satisfactory reasons.

Since such firsthand meeting is not forthcoming, Job again hazards some guesses. Although some interpreters see in verse 23 a break in Job’s confident assertions of integrity, it seems more probable in the light of this whole speech that the question is asked as a pure hypothesis — as though to say, "If sin is the explanation, why not point out what sins, since up to now none has been named." In the same way verse 26 is not to be taken as an admission that what Job now suffers is the direct result of sins committed in his early youth; it is another hypothesis which he advances as a possible but unproved reason for the catastrophe.

All of the contradictions and meaninglessness of Job’s life are caught up in the pathetic words of verses 24-25 and 27. The word "enemy" in the original is a bitter wordplay on the name "Job." The descriptive images of the "driven leaf" and the "dry chaff" not only are pictures of his existence, but they also point up the sheer irrationality of the situation, where a man reduced to this frail state is still subjected to unceasing attention from God (vs. 27).

The thought of Job’s frailty and the tenuous nature of his life suggests the fact that all life, even at its best, is transient and ephemeral. In a short but exceedingly moving section (Job 13:28 to Job 14:6) Job dwells upon this basic paradox of man’s existence (see also Job 7:1-2; Job 7:17). Verse 28 is difficult, for, as the margin indicates, the subject changes abruptly to the third person pronoun, although an antecedent does not appear until the following verse ("man"). For this reason some commentators have suggested that the verse is out of place and would come better after Job 14:6. It is possible that the original order was as it now appears, although it makes for disconnected thought.

The images in this section depict the brevity of man’s life: "a rotten thing," a "moth-eaten" garment, "a flower," "a shadow." All substantiate the fundamental point that it is the nature of man’s life to be short and full of trouble. The mystery is that God adds to this general misery by such special visitations as Job illustrates. Why, Job asks, need there be more suffering and fewer years than would be his common lot as "man . . . born of a woman"?

The question in verse 4 is hard to understand, for it breaks into the general theme of the brevity of man’s life with a query about sin. Is Job agreeing that man is generally sinful? Or is he questioning the proposal that will be made a bit later, that tragedy is God’s means of refining human life? (see 33:19-28). It seems fairly certain that he is at least giving assent to the truth that in comparison with God man is always "unclean" and no amount of experience will make him otherwise. Man will always be man, not God. But that truth does not alter the fact that Job’s case is so special and his suffering so extraordinary that no explanation can be found in the ordinary constitution of man’s life.

The section ends with a sad plea that God, who has set man within such a severely circumscribed life, give man peace in his limited days, to find what little joy he can (see also 7:19; 10:20).

Verses 7-22

Is There to Be Another Life? (14:7-22)

As Job’s speech nears its conclusion it is clear that the author has been working toward a great climax. Beginning with the contradictions of Job’s own life, he turns next to the brevity of life in general. Then the next stage is reached when the thought centers on the fact of death itself as the great symbol both of Job’s extreme dilemma and of the transitoriness of man’s life. In Job 14:2 man has been compared to a flower, withering almost as soon as it blooms. In Job 14:7 man is contrasted with a tree, as Job declares that unlike man, nature shows some faint hope of survival beyond what seems to be death.

The image is clear enough without explanation, as the contrast is drawn between man’s life and that of a felled tree. The tree may "come back to life" but man dies and that is the end, final and complete. There is no place in the Old Testament where the common expectation and the common lack of hope are more powerfully set forth than here. Job insists, against all suppositions to the contrary, that death is the end, that Sheol rather than life is man’s final destiny (on "Sheol" see Job 3:11-19). That he makes the point with such strong insistence may indicate that the book was written at a time when the possibility of an afterlife was the subject of popular discussion.

At verse 13 a remarkable change occurs. Job has been dwelling upon the "Nevermore" placed by death over against man’s life. This death will be a "sleep" in Sheol. But suddenly a new possibility breaks in. Suppose there were something beyond Sheol! Suppose Sheol were for him a time of waiting, so that beyond its limits God would call him into renewed meeting. This possibility raises the fascinating question in verse 14. It is a question for Job, not an affirmation, but it is extraordinary, given the facts in his case, that the thought should occur at all.

It is evident that the only basis for the possibility is Job’s knowledge of God and the prior fellowship with God which he had enjoyed. Neither nature nor his own situation, nor even the word of God in times past, gave Job reason to believe. Here is a man who is thrown back entirely on God, but who, out of his knowledge of God, comes to the conclusion that it is possible that relationship with God is not to be ended by death.

This is not Job’s greatest moment, but light is beginning to break. It does not come in full flood yet — in fact, not until the resurrection of Christ is the light seen in its fullness — but it is dawning here. All of Job’s expressions about this possibility point to the personal character of his thought, as he dreams of God’s calling him in love and drawing him into an appointed meeting.

Verses 16 and 17 admit of two possible interpretations. In the Revised Standard Version they are made to be a continuation of Job’s passionate imagining of what it would be like to meet God beyond Sheol. Thus part of this meeting would be full and complete forgiveness. It must be admitted, however, that as yet Job has not accepted the fact that any such sins or iniquities need pardon. It is possible that the verses are to be taken in the opposite sense, and are a vivid self -reminder of the actualities of the present in contrast with the kind of future of which Job has been dreaming.

That the second interpretation is the more likely is indicated by verses 18-22, where the mood is quite pessimistic. After Job’s hypothetical question he comes back to the realities of nature and of his own life. Although nature gives a faint hint of hope (Job 14:7) it gives more evidence of final dissolution. Mountains crumble, even rocks are worn away, and similarly the "hope" of man is no solid, lasting hope. In the end Job comes back to the original conclusion which he had reached in Job 14:10-12. He can expect only death and beyond that nothing. Finally he takes a look at a possible solution, often proposed, that man has a real future in the generations that are to follow him. In brief contempt Job demolishes this as a false hope with no meaning for a man in deep tragedy. If succeeding generations are to be happy, it will bring the sufferer no release. Men do not know or profit from the experiences of their children; they know only the pains of their own existence (for a stronger statement of the same thought see Job 21:19-21).