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 groweth 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.