This chapter is a repetition of what Job has said before. For a short time, he forgets about his predicament and turns to his friends and now is back to his predicament ‘woe is me’. He says mortals are born of a woman, their days are few and filled with trouble, Job 14:1 / Genesis 47:9. He finds it strange that divine strictness should rest on someone as frail as he is. Job questioned why God would be so concerned with individuals who were like a blooming flower that soon passes away, Job 14:2-3 / Acts 17:26. The existence is fleshly and he asks, who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing, Job 14:4.
Job might simply be identifying himself with the rest of humanity. Yet in the context of where it sits, what he really is saying is that God cannot judge someone as clean as he must be, Romans 3:23. Further to that, he says since man’s life is only a breath, Acts 17:26, and the least God can do is look away briefly and give him a rest, Job 14:5-6.
He goes on and he pictures the futility of life. He contrasts the fate of things with the fate of people. Out of the top, the fate of things to come.
Blair, in his commentary, says the following, concerning the hope of a tree, Job 14:7.
‘What Job was saying here pertains exclusively to, the return of men to this present life in its present form. Job was not ignorant of the resurrection hope, but a firm believer in it.’
A tree that is cut down can come back to life, Job 14:7-9.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following, concerning Job 14:9.
‘The word here rendered ‘scent’ means properly the odour or fragrance which anything exhales or emits, Song of Songs 2:13 / Song of Songs 7:13 / Genesis 27:27. The idea is very delicate and poetic. It is designed to denote a gentle and pleasant contact, not a rush of water, by which the tree is made to live. It inhales, so to speak, the vital influence from the water, as we are refreshed and revived by grateful odoriferous when we are ready to faint.’
Although a tree can come back to life, man is just destroyed and is buried, Job 14:10. Job says as the water of a lake dries up or a riverbed becomes parched and dry, so he lies down and does not rise until ‘the heavens are no more’, Job 14:11-12. These words appear to indicate that those who rest in death will not rise out of their sleep until the heavens are no more, 2 Peter 3:10-13.
We must remember, in the Old Testament the idea of death is vague, Job 3:12-19 / Job 10:21-22 / Job 14:20-22, and the idea of eternal life is never really taught. It was Jesus who brought life and immortality to light, 2 Timothy 1:10.
Here Job wishes that God would hide him until His wrath has passed by and then he could remember him again, Job 14:13. From Job’s heart escapes the deep hope felt by all mankind if a man dies shall he live again, Job 14:14.
Moffat, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Job could cope if he could hope for a life after, beyond the grave. These are the words of a man who can’t let go of his faith even though the present dealings and sufferings with him are a complete mystery to him. And like he has done before he sees God as watching his every move. He sees God as one who pulverises the mightiest works of nature and stalks Job. How thrilled Job would have been to hear the word of Jesus ‘I am the way, the truth and the life, John 14:6.’
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following, concerning Job 14:15.
‘This is language taken from courts of justice. It refers, probably, not to a future time, but to the present. It expresses a desire to come at once to trial; to have the matter adjusted before he should leave the world. He could not bear the idea of going out of the world under the imputations which were lying on him, and he asked for an opportunity to vindicate himself before his Maker, Job 9:16.’
He certain that God will count his steps but not keep track of His sin, Job 14:16 / Job 13:27.
Andersen, in his commentary, says the following, concerning Job 14:17.
‘These transgressions have been sealed up in order to hide them, and not for keeping them to be used at some time of reckoning.’
Dummelow, in his commentary, says the following, concerning Job 14:18-19.
‘Under God’s visitation the hopes of men come to nought, like undermined mountains or water-worn rocks.’
Job still feels that God’s rule is arbitrary and not in line with justice, Job 14:20-22. He regards his friends as ill-advised councillors and so he wishes to speak with God personally. It would seem that Job on the surface was convinced by his friends that in life the good are rewarded and the evil punished.
Therefore, his own circumstance is causing him conflict and he turns to God with a bitter complaint. And he wants to discuss things with God because He is greater and just and at least He will listen to what he has to say. He wants to prove that he is innocent. In doing so before God he thinks God will take his life but he will accept that. Job is saying a hypocrite would want an audience with God but he wouldn’t stand a chance.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘This is indeed a sad and mournful picture of our lives upon earth. The notion that men continue to live on in the lives of their children is contradicted by the fact that whatever happens to them is unknown to the deceased. Man’s brief life is subjected to the very same erosive and destructive elements in our world that can wear down the mountains, and even wash away the stones, so ‘little by little, man’s hope is destroyed, drop by drop’. But it should not be overlooked that Job in this paragraph is pointing men away from the prospects as they are in this life and in the direction of the eternal things of God. The man who establishes his hope in this world only is a fool. It is a race he cannot win, a hope that he shall never realize, a trial that shall never end, and a warfare that he absolutely cannot win.’