World English Bible
- “Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.
- He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.
- Do you open your eyes on such a one, and bring me into judgment with you?
- Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
- Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass.
- Look away from him, that he may rest, until he accomplishes, as a hireling, his day.
- “For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease.
- Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in the ground,
- yet through the scent of water it will bud, and sprout boughs like a plant.
- But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?
- As the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes and dries up,
- so man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.
- “Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep me secret until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time and remember me!
- If a man dies, will he live again? I would wait all the days of my warfare, until my release should come.
- You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire for the work of your hands.
- But now you count my steps. Don’t you watch over my sin?
- My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity.
- “But the mountain falling comes to nothing. The rock is removed out of its place.
- The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.
- You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change his face, and send him away.
- His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it. They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them.
- But his flesh on him has pain, and his soul within him mourns.”
Job 14 — At the Scent of Water
Few days, full of tremors “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble” (Job 14:1, New International Version). The Hebrew rogez suggests quake, trembling—life as aftershock. Job’s realism is not cynical; it is sober. In an ancient world where graves bordered every field, no one mistook life for permanence. The poem moves with desert imagery: flower, shadow, stump. It is wisdom sung at the edge of a cemetery.
The tree’s parable and the daring “until” “Even a tree has hope… at the scent of water it will bud” (14:7–9). The phrase “scent of water” (ra‘ach mayim) is as tender as poetry gets. In the Near East, seeds can sleep for years; water wakes them. (Modern note: date seeds from Masada sprouted after two millennia when watered.) Job watches creation preach: renewal is real in God’s world.
Then the jolt: “But a man dies and lies prostrate” (14:10). Job does not deny resurrection; he draws the tension to its tightest string: “they will not awake… till the heavens are no more” (14:12). The little word “till” is everything. He prays, “Oh, that you would hide me in the grave… set a time for me and remember me!” (14:13). “Remember” (zākar) in Scripture is covenant action, not mere recall; “set a time” likely echoes choq, a fixed decree. Job asks for a statute of mercy beyond his conscripted tour (“hard service,” tsābā’, cf. Job 7) until his “change” (chalīfāh) comes (14:14).
Then the most unthinkable line: “You would call and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands” (14:15). Job imagines God’s homesickness for his creatures. Resurrection, in seed form, appears not as human indestructibility but as divine desire. Gregory the Great heard here the promise of bodily renewal; Calvin noted a glimmer awaiting the full daylight of Christ. The New Testament completes the sentence: “All who are in their graves will hear his voice” (John 5:28–29), and the Caller we meet is the Bridegroom who rejoices over us (Zephaniah 3:17; Psalm 138:8).
The sealed bag and the canceled record “You fasten up my iniquity” (14:17). Job pictures an archive of guilt: in the ancient world debts were sealed in bags or clay jars (cf. Jeremiah 32:14). He fears a cosmic ledger stitched shut against mercy. Yet already another script is being written: “You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle” (Psalm 56:8). In Christ, the ledger is taken from the shelf and nailed to a cross (Colossians 2:14). The God who “counts my steps” (14:16) does not stalk but shepherds; the archive keeps tears, not accusations.
Practice: waiting at the edge of dawn
Suggested cross-references - Psalms 56:8; 103:14; 138:8 - Isaiah 26:19; 44:3–4 - John 5:28–29; 11:43–44 - Colossians 2:14 - Revelation 21:1–5
Prayer Longing God, who remembers dust and bottles tears, hide us in your mercy until your wrath is past. Appoint us a time and call our names. Let the scent of your living water reach our buried places, and make us answer you with joy. Count not our sins, but our steps toward home, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.