BIBLE CHAPTER STUDY
Job 14: The Brevity of Life and Hope Beyond Sheol
Job contrasts the fleeting, troubled life of man with a tree that can sprout again, then pleads for God to hide him in Sheol until a appointed time when he will be called and answer.
Scripture
1Man, that is born of a woman, Is of few days, and full of trouble.
2He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: He fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
3And dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one, And bringest me into judgment with thee?
4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
5Seeing his days are determined, The number of his months is with thee, And thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
6Look away from him, that he may rest, Till he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.
7For 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.
8Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, And the stock thereof die in the ground;
9Yet through the scent of water it will bud, And put forth boughs like a plant.
10But man dieth, and is laid low: Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
11As the waters fail from the sea, And the river wasteth and drieth up;
12So man lieth down and riseth not: Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, Nor be roused out of their sleep.
13Oh that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol, That thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, That thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare would I wait, Till my release should come.
15Thou wouldest call, and I would answer thee: Thou wouldest have a desire to the work of thy hands.
16But now thou numberest my steps: Dost thou not watch over my sin?
17My transgression is sealed up in a bag, And thou fastenest up mine iniquity.
18But the mountain falling cometh to nought; And the rock is removed out of its place;
19The waters wear the stones; The overflowings thereof wash away the dust of the earth: So thou destroyest the hope of man.
20Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth; Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.
21His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; And they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.
22But his flesh upon him hath pain, And his soul within him mourneth.
What this passage means
Job opens the chapter with a meditation on the human condition: 'Man, that is born of a woman, Is of few days, and full of trouble.' The vocabulary emphasizes fragility—human life is compared to a flower that 'cometh forth' and is 'cut down,' and to a shadow that 'continueth not.' The brevity is not merely temporal but moral: even the boundaries of his days are appointed by God, so that he cannot pass beyond them.
The chapter then shifts imagery. A tree, even when cut down, has hope: its roots may wax old, its stock die in the ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud again. Man, by contrast, 'lieth down and riseth not' until the heavens be no more. Job does not leave the contrast there as a final verdict. In verses 13–15 he voices a longing that God would hide him in Sheol, appoint a set time, and remember him—so that he might 'answer' when God calls and be the object of God's desire toward 'the work of thy hands.'
The closing verses register the tension between this hope and present experience. Job acknowledges that God currently 'numberest my steps' and seals up transgression; that mountains fall, rocks are moved, and waters wear the stones, and 'thou destroyest the hope of man.' Yet even his sons' honor or disgrace escapes his notice, and only his own flesh paining and soul mourning remain. The chapter thus frames the doctrine of human mortality as the ground from which a plea for resurrection rises.
Context
Job 14 sits within the larger cycle of speeches between Job and his friends, where Job wrestles with the justice of God against his suffering. The chapter itself is the direct continuation of Job's prior discourse and stands apart from the later divine speeches in Job 38–41. No chapter-level editorial note was supplied beyond a backfill tag indicating the chapter was retrieved outside any prioritized selection.
The provided cross-references cluster around two images found in Job 14: the grass-and-flower image of mortal life (Isaiah 40:6, 40:8; 1 Peter 1:24; Psalms 103:15–16; James 1:10–11), and the shadow-of-days image (Job 8:9; 1 Chronicles 29:15; Psalms 144:4; James 4:14). Isaiah 27:6 is included in the closed set though it speaks of Jacob taking root and blossoming, a contrast-image fitting Job's tree simile in verses 7–9.
Key words in the original
- H0120 ʾāḏām in verse 1, glossed 'man,' sets up Job's subject: humanity as a category, not a particular individual. The generic noun underlines that what follows applies to all born of woman.
- H6731 ṣiyṣ in verse 2 is rendered 'flower' and links Job 14:2 to the wider biblical metaphor of human life as grass and flower that fades (cf. Isaiah 40:6–8).
- H2889 ṭāhôr in verse 4, glossed 'clean,' appears in Job's rhetorical question 'Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?' The paired ṭāmēʾ (H2931, 'unclean') frames moral and ceremonial purity language already familiar from Job's earlier speeches.
Related verses
- Isaiah 40:6 Isaiah's declaration 'All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field' is the canonical echo of Job 14:2, where man 'cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down.'
- Job 8:9 Bildad's earlier remark 'our days upon earth are a shadow' parallels Job's own shadow simile in Job 14:2 and frames the brevity-of-life motif inside the friends' speeches.
- Psalms 103:15 The psalmist's 'As for man, his days are as grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth' reiterates the Job 14:2 vocabulary, extending the flower-and-shadow motif into Israel's worship vocabulary.
Common questions
Does Job 14 teach a doctrine of resurrection?
Job 14:13–15 expresses Job's longing that God would hide him in Sheol until wrath is past and then call him so that he may answer. The text presents this as a plea or hope rather than a doctrinal statement, but it is the clearest passage in Job voicing expectation beyond death. Scholars genuinely differ on how much later resurrection theology it implies.
Why does Job compare man to a tree that sprouts again?
The tree simile in verses 7–9 sets up the contrast that drives the chapter: a cut-down tree has hope of budding, but man 'lieth down and riseth not' (v. 12). The contrast sharpens Job's complaint about mortality and frames the plea for divine intervention that follows.
What does 'Sheol' mean in Job 14:13?
Sheol is the Hebrew term for the realm of the dead, used consistently elsewhere in the Old Testament. In verse 13 Job asks God to hide him there as a temporary shelter until wrath passes, not as a final destination—setting up his request for a 'set time' and remembrance.