Job Chapter 14

Job declares the shortness of man's days: and professes his belief of a resurrection.

14:1. Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries.

14:2. Who cometh forth like a flower, and is destroyed, and fleeth as a shadow, and never continueth in the same state.

14:3. And dost thou think it meet to open thy eyes upon such an one, and to bring him into judgment with thee?

14:4. Who can make him clean that is conceived of unclean seed? is it not thou who only art?

14:5. The days of man are short, and the number of his months is with thee: thou hast appointed his bounds which cannot be passed.

14:6. Depart a little from him, that he may rest until his wished for day come, as that of the hireling.

14:7. A tree hath hope: if it be cut, it growth green again, and the boughs thereof sprout.

14:8. If its roots be old in the earth, and its stock be dead in the dust:

14:9. At the scent of water, it shall spring, and bring forth leaves, as when it was first planted.

14:10. But man when he shall be dead, and stripped and consumed, I pray you where is he?

14:11. As if the waters should depart out of the sea, and an emptied river should be dried up;

14:12. So man when he is fallen asleep shall not rise again; till the heavens be broken, he shall not awake, nor rise up out of his sleep.

14:13. Who will grant me this, that thou mayst protect me in hell, and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when thou wilt remember me?

That thou mayst protect me in hell. . .That is, in the state of the dead; and in the place where the souls are kept waiting for their Redeemer.

14:14. Shall man that is dead, thinkest thou, live again? all the days in which I am now in warfare, I expect until my change come.

14:15. Thou shalt call me, and I will answer thee: to the work of thy hands thou shalt reach out thy right hand.

14:16. Thou indeed hast numbered my steps, but spare my sins.

14:17. Thou hast sealed up my offences as it were in a bag, but hast cured my iniquity.

14:18. A mountain falling cometh to nought, and a rock is removed out of its place.

14:19. Waters wear away the stones, and with inundation the ground by little and little is washed away: so in like manner thou shalt destroy man.

14:20. Thou hast strengthened him for a little while, that he may pass away for ever: thou shalt change his face, and shalt send him away.

14:21. Whether his children come to honour or dishonour, he shall not understand.

14:22. But yet his flesh, while he shall live, shall have pain, and his soul shall mourn over him.