BOOK 18 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Job 14

Job book home•Chapter 14 of 42•22 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Job 14 Overview

Job reflects on the short and troubled life of man, comparing human mortality with a tree that can sprout again after being cut. He asks whether a man who dies can live again and expresses hope of waiting for his appointed change, while still describing death and divine judgment with uncertainty.

JobBook

14Chapter

22Verses

PoetryDivision

Before you read Job 14

Coming from

Chapter 13 ended with Job trusting God yet pressing for a direct hearing.

In this chapter

Job turns from his individual case to the universal problem of mortality and voices a striking question about life beyond death.

Leads into

Chapter 15 begins the second round of debate when Eliphaz accuses Job’s words of undermining reverence and again insists the wicked suffer.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Job 14 contains hope and uncertainty side by side. The question “If a man die, shall he live again?” is followed by Job’s willingness to wait for his change, but the fuller resurrection doctrine is revealed more clearly elsewhere in Scripture and later in Job 19.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Human life is brief, troubled, and entirely within God’s knowledge.

Truth 2

Mortality raises a question that earthly prosperity cannot answer: what hope exists beyond death?

Truth 3

Job’s language shows that suffering has pushed the debate beyond material restoration toward life after death.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Psalm 90 reflects on the brevity of human life before the eternal God.

Connection 2

Daniel 12:2 gives a clearer Old Testament statement of bodily resurrection.

Connection 3

1 Corinthians 15 provides the full New Testament proclamation that the dead will be raised.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not force every image in Job 14 into a complete doctrine of the afterlife; Job is wrestling, not delivering a systematic treatise.

Keep this clear 2

The tree analogy highlights the apparent contrast between plant renewal and human death; it should be read in that rhetorical setting.

Keep this clear 3

Job’s hope of a future “change” is significant, but later Scripture should govern detailed resurrection doctrine.

Read Job 14 watching for…

The repeated emphasis on life’s brevity.

The tree that can sprout again.

Job’s question about life after death.

His willingness to wait for his change.

The mixture of hope and uncertainty in the chapter.

Chapter outline4 sections

1-6Job describes man as few of days, full of trouble, and living within God’s appointed bounds 7-12Job contrasts a tree that may sprout again with man who dies and lies down 13-17Job longs to be hidden in the grave until God calls and his change comes 18-22Job describes how earthly things wear away and says man’s hope is destroyed

Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.

Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;

Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;

Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.

But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:

So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?

My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.

And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.

The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.

Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.

His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.

But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.

STUDY THIS VERSE

Job 14:6

Back to verse ↑

Cross References

Cross-reference storage is active. This passage does not yet have curated references loaded.

Related TWBC Resources

The Scripture resource graph is active. Sermons, Bible Overviews, courses, questions, and studies can attach here without changing the Bible text.