What is Job saying he believes about death and what follows in Job 14?

Question

Job makes several interesting statements in chapter 14 about death.

10 But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he?

11 As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up,

12 so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.

13 Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!

14 If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come.

15 You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands.

16 For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin;

17 my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.

(ESV, statements of note highlighted by me)

What does Job intimate he believes about death?

• Does he expect to stay dead? Does he expect or is hopeful of a resurrection?

• Is he being rhetorical, meaning we are expected to know the answer, or does he actually answer his own questions from v10, 14?

• What do v16 and v17 and sin, iniquity, and transgressions have to do with it?

Answer 1

Can a Cut-Down Tree Sprout Again?

COMPARED to a majestic cedar of Lebanon, a gnarled and knotty olive tree may not seem especially impressive. But olive trees have the remarkable ability to survive the elements. Some are estimated to be 1,000 years old. An olive tree’s expansive root system enables it to rejuvenate itself even when the trunk has been destroyed. As long as the roots remain alive, it will sprout again.

The patriarch Job was convinced that even if he should die, he would live again. (Job 14:13-15) He used a tree—perhaps an olive tree—to illustrate his confidence in God’s ability to resurrect him. “There is hope even for a tree,” Job said. “If it is cut down, it will sprout again.” When rainfall breaks a severe drought, a dry olive stump can spring back to life with shoots rising from its roots, producing “branches like a new plant.”—Job 14:7-9.

Just as a cultivator longs to see the roots of a cut-down olive tree spring up again, God longs to restore his deceased servants and many others to life. (Matt. 22:31, 32; John 5:28, 29; Acts 24:15)

Matthew 22:31-32New International Version (NIV)

<< "31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’[a]? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”>>

Acts 24:15New International Version (NIV)

<<"15 and I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.">>

Answer 2

Job 14 is, as I read it, specifically rejecting any hope of a resurrection. I don't read Hebrew but the NIV certainly reads that way.

The first 12 verses are entirely void of any hope:

1 “Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble. 2 They spring up like flowers and wither away; like fleeting shadows, they do not endure. 3 Do you fix your eye on them? Will you bring them[a] before you for judgment? 4 Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one! 5 A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed. 6 So look away from him and let him alone, till he has put in his time like a hired laborer.

7 “At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. 8 Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil, 9 yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant. 10 But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more. 11 As the water of a lake dries up or a riverbed becomes parched and dry, 12 so he lies down and does not rise; till the heavens are no more, people will not awake or be roused from their sleep.

Footnote:

Job 14:3 Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew me

In verses 13 to 17 he fantasizes of God giving hope beyond the grave and how he would be willing to patiently wait for that:

13 “If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed! If only you would set me a time and then remember me! 14 If someone dies, will they live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal[b] to come. 15 You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made. 16 Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin. 17 My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; you will cover over my sin.

Footnote:

Job 14:14 Or release

But in 18ff he says that God destroys that hope as they utterly vanish without a trace:

18 “But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from its place, 19 as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy a person’s hope. 20 You overpower them once for all, and they are gone; you change their countenance and send them away. 21 If their children are honored, they do not know it; if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it. 22 They feel but the pain of their own bodies and mourn only for themselves.”

Job 19:25-27 are taken by some to declare the opposite - that Job believes that Jesus is his redeemer from sin and death and he will raise him from the dead. However, is that really his hope?:

25 I know that my redeemer[c] lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.[d] 26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet[e] in[f] my flesh I will see God; 27 I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

Footnotes Job 19:25 Or vindicator Job 19:25 Or on my grave Job 19:26 Or And after I awake, / though this body has been destroyed, / then Job 19:26 Or destroyed, / apart from

When will Job see God? Not at "the last day" but "in the future" which we see "fulfilled" here:

KJV Job 42:5 "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee."

In Job 14 he has made it clear that his hope is only in redemption in this life because hope beyond that is vain. So here he is expressing his hope for this life:

• his "rich uncle" ("redeemer") is alive. He is talking about God, not Jesus.
• later (after some time) God will act on the earth
• after his skin is wrecked by his disease (probably Leish Maniasis) he will see God [act]
• it will be the same Job, not some resurrection or reincarnation situation
• and for this his heart yearns

That his earthly hope was granted is shown in Job and the story ends:

NIV Job 42: 12The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. 13And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. 15Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. 16After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17And so Job died, an old man and full of years.

That this was his "end" is likewise expressed by James:

NIV James 5: 10Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

I could be wrong but if I had to do a book report for high school that is how I would interpret it. If I knew Hebrew I might have a different interpretation.

Update:

While Job complains that God has taken away his hope, God arrives and responds to Job, reproving him and telling him he simply doesn't have enough information. He doesn't say that he does have hope but since Job lacks the big picture it may be implied. Jesus makes resurrection a given for those who are faithful to him:

KJV Mar 12:27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.

Update #2

In Job's speech in Job 19 he makes a solemn declaration that his hope that God will act on his behalf in the future, re-clothing him in fresh skin and dispensing justice but, he explains, his "heart grows faint within him":

NET Bible Job 19:

23 “O that my words were written down, O that they were written on a scroll, 24 that with an iron chisel and with lead they were engraved in a rock forever! 25 As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that as the last he will stand upon the earth. 26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God, 27 whom I will see for myself, and whom my own eyes will behold, and not another. My heart grows faint within me. 28 If you say, ‘How we will pursue him, since the root of the trouble is found in him!’ 29 Fear the sword yourselves, for wrath brings the punishment by the sword, so that you may know that there is judgment.”

I take this to be Job asserting that objectively he knows and considers absolutely incontestable that God will not let him down but will in the future set things to right for him upon the earth but that his heart is sinking into despair. In other words, here in his speech he seems to describe himself as someone whose mind sees hope but his hopeless speeches reflect the despair of his emotions.

In fact, with that insight as we look at his earlier speech in chapter 14 we see that he claims that before his ordeal he may have had hope for a resurrection but that the assaults on him have worn them down to nothing:

NET Bible Job 14:

18 But as a mountain falls away and crumbles, and as a rock will be removed from its place, 19 as water wears away stones, and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy man’s hope. 20 You overpower him once for all, and he departs; you change his appearance [IE: you make his countenance fall into despair] and send him away.

So Job's hopes have been crushed out of him as if all the soil on his farm was washed off his farm into the sea.

So the reader is alerted that despite Job's complaint that his complaints that God has taken away all hope he does retain hope that God will reverse this all in the future and there will be justice. In a word, it seems Job is venting.

The genre of Job is not a theological discourse per se but an accounting of the mysterious ways of God, particularly in human suffering.

Answer 3

You asked a few questions? Does job expect to stay dead? My response is that Job does not believe God is going to end his life but Job explains that if God choose to he could but Job explains that although the flesh he is born into will never be resurrected he will live on and will be judged and born again when and if God chooses. And job pleads that while God is doing this that he be relieved of his agony and taken out of the flesh he is in and be allowed to wait where the dead are living. (There are several examples that the dead are still alive and intelligent, i.e.,a Witch conjured up Samuel, see:1 Samuel 28:11-19, (K.J.)and Samuel knew the future, and Jesus spoke of three people in death Abraham, Lazarus and a Rich man, see:Luke 17:19-28(K.J.) all conversating with each other?.

**DOES JOB EXPECT TO BE RESURRECTED ONE DAY**** Job is acknowledging that believes that somehow he will be resurrected again one day but the body he is in will never exist again. V-14, "shall he live again, I shall wait

IS JOB BEING RHETORICAL .... Job is saying he does not know what becomes of him, not his flesh, when the flesh he is in dies. In V.13 He acknowledges that there is some type of place of waiting when we separate from our fleshly bodies.. He merely acknowledges that nobody is ever born again from death into the same exact flesh. (For instance comparing twins, they appear equal but are unique)

What do v:16 and 17 have to do with "it?" This question is vague ("it"????)? But in these two verses, because Job refuses to blame God, or contend with God, Job is blaming himself for whats has happened to him and saying to God, "Okay you have found me guilty of sinning against you, and you have judged me but since I am still alive I will use this time to ask that you have mercy on me.

CONCLUSION

So Job believes in death, believes you only live once (in the body you are in) and believes there is a place where the dead wait to be born again, v-14, "all the days of my appointed time I will wait till my change come." (SO ALL THE TIME OF HIS PUNISHMENT HE WILL WAIT TO BE RESURRECTED INTO FLESH AGAIN)

Even Jesus acknowledged that in the land of the dead all are living to God, see Mt 13:49; 18: 8-9; Mt 22:32, "God is not God of the dead, but of the living.". Samuel was dead but he was still living. (SO THOSE WHO DIE LIKE SAMUEL ARE WAITING SOMEWHERE,(for an appointed amount of time given them) TO BE RESURRECTED

Answer 4

Job is an existential philosopher at heart. He expresses his experience of a number of philosophical questions regarding life, suffering and one's relationship with God, without offering definitive answers. He explores answers to these questions by describing what he experiences - how he feels, his observations of nature, the world around him and human behaviour. All he can know is what he experiences, and he explores how those experiences align or conflict with the religious doctrine of his time.

In chapter 14, Job is expressing despair over his current quality of life. He is saying that he would prefer to be hidden away in the place of the dead until such time as God is no longer angry with him - rather than suffer this pain, loss and humiliation in the midst of those who once respected him so highly. 'Come back and call for me when you're not angry anymore', he suggests. He would wait patiently there until God is ready to look on him again with favour, and he hopes that whatever he did to upset God would then be sealed up and covered over - buried in the past, so to speak.

Job seems to consider Sheol as a third alternative to either living or non-existence. But there is nothing definitive about this belief, or the possibility of living again even if he could choose this. If it were an option - if he could choose to neither live through this suffering nor die a final death of non-existence, and be able to return to living with God's favour restored - then that's what he would prefer.

Job observes this renewal of life he hopes for in a tree that sprouts again even after being cut down, but he finds no evidence of this renewal in the life of man. He compares his experience of human life to that of a flower that withers, a shadow that flees, and later to mountains that crumble, rocks that get worn down or soil washed away. He finds no trace of human existence remaining beyond his own body.

Answer 5

Job 14 (DRB)

1 Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries. 2 Who cometh forth like a flower, and is destroyed, and fleeth as a shadow, and never continueth in the same state. 3 And dost thou think it meet to open thy eyes upon such an one, and to bring him into judgment with thee? 4 Who can make him clean that is conceived of unclean seed? is it not thou who only art? 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. 6 Depart a little from him, that he may rest, until his wished for day come, as that of the hireling. 7 A tree hath hope: if it be cut, it groweth green again, and the boughs thereof sprout. 8 If its root be old in the earth, and its stock be dead in the dust: 9 At the scent of water, it shall spring, and bring forth leaves, as when it was first planted. 10 But man when he shall be dead, and stripped and consumed, I pray you where is he? 11 As if the waters should depart out of the sea, and an emptied river should be dried up: 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. 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? 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. 15 Thou shalt call me, and I will answer thee: to the work of thy hands thou shalt reach out thy right hand. 16 Thou indeed hast numbered my steps, but spare my sins. 17 Thou hast sealed up my offences as it were in a bag, but hast cured my iniquity. 18 A mountain falling cometh to nought, and a rock is removed out of its place. 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. 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. 21 Whether his children come to honour or dishonour, he shall not understand. 22 But yet his flesh, while he shall live, shall have pain, and his soul shall mourn over him.

19:25-27 (explicit affirmation of the Final Resurrection)

For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth. 26 And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I will see my God. 27 Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another: this my hope is laid up in my bosom.

Job speaks of sleep being the body's death (cf. John 11:11). He compares the seemping hopelessness of the dry plant with the dead body. But once from the outside it is enkindled, brought back to life again by the nourishment of water, it comes back to life, as it were. He compares this with how the decayed body will make a return to life. The uses hyperbolic language ("for ever") to express the supereme dominion of God over all life, and the nothingness of man in comparison—the hopelessness of man without God to vivify him, especially after bodily death.

Answer 6

It is not Chapter 14, but actually the end of the Book of Job which suggests "life after death." The text suggests "life after death" since Job received a double portion of everything he had in Chapter 1.

For example, the LXX and Masoretic Text (MT) disagree concerning the number of oxen and donkeys which Job once owned; however, both the LXX and MT are mathematically consistent in that Job received double from the LORD for everything that he once possessed.

Job 42:10 (NASB)
¹⁰ The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold.

The text is declarative: "...the Lord increased all that Job had twofold" (emphasis added).

So the question in the last chapter is why he did not have double the children as he had double the animals? That is, while all the animals are restored two-fold (doubled in number), the children are not. Instead of 20 children, he is restored with only the original amount of 10 children (7 sons and 3 daughters).

So why was there the two-fold restoration of animals, but not of people? Was Job short-changed in the end? He was not. He received two-fold the number of children because his original 10 children who died in Chapter 1 were "still alive." Thus the additional 10 children he receives at the end of the story "double" his inheritance of children to 20. In this regard, we can infer that animals do not experience "life after death," which stems from that only human beings are created in the image of God.

If this inductive conclusion were NOT accurate, then the doubling of animals (and not of children) at the end of the story of Job would suggest that Job was short-changed by God. Such a conclusion would be absurd considering the very positive descriptions and two-fold blessings "of everything" at the conclusion of the Job narrative.

Answer 7

Job , I believe, asks a rhetorical question in vs.14. Should we really think that Job believed a dead man can live again? He has already spent much time in the previous verses lamenting how there is no way a man can live again. Vs.1 of 14 "Man...he comes forth like a flower and fades away; he flees like a shadow and does NOT continue.". Job then explains in verses 7-9 that there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down it will sprout again etc..
Then in verse 10 Job says "but", or however, as in contrast to a tree, man dies and unlike a tree is laid away and breathes his last. He then rhetorically asks 'where is he?', Job compares a dead man to evaporated water; gone. And so he sums up mans final plight in verse 12, " Man lies down and DOES NOT RISE". This is a statement of having no belief in a resurrection. In fact Job drives the point home that 'until the heavens are no more, man will not awake nor be roused from sleep(death).' In verse 13 he wishes God would hide him in the grave and conceal him until His trials pass. He then asks if a man (himself) dies can he live again? Well, Job already answered this question in the previous verses we just discussed, the answer is NO, he cannot live again; even though this is what Job wishes so that he can temporarily be relieved from his misery, there is no such hope. After asking rhetorically if man dies shall he live again, (which Job already has answered no to) he realizes that his only option is to wait during all the days of his hard service- vs.14b. Some view this hard service as his waiting dead in the grave, but Job already said that he WISHES he could die (implying that death is a relief from this "hard service") and wait in the grave until God's wrath passes, so why would he now describe this so called relief as hard service? The same Hebrew word translated as hard service in vs.14 is also used in Job 7:1 and it refers to the difficult LIFE of man on earth, while alive. So in vs. 14 the hard service is the trials Job is presently enduring, which he believes is from God. Since Job knows a man can never live again,therefore waiting in death until his trials end is not an option; he then concludes that he will have to wait and endure his trials, his "hard service" until it passes and his change comes. To drive the point home that Job,or at best the writer of Job does not believe in resurrection, in chapter 42 his children whom have been killed are not brought back to life again. Instead he is given new children. Wouldn't any parent want their children back from the dead and not just different children. We all know that having more children can never replace the ones we may have lost in death. Why cannot the God of life bring back Job's children if He has that power? It is because the writer of Job does not have the belief of a resurrection and therefore does not write about God performing such a miracle for Job's children.

Answer 8

No, that would contradict other parts of the Bible that promise resurrection or afterlife. Christ himself was rose from the dead.

Colossians 1:18 (NASB, emphasis added)

He is also the head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

Meaning, from here on there will be more resurrections.

This answer of no resurrection sounds more like that of a Sadducee trying to convince a Pharisee that there is no resurrection for the dead, as described in Acts 23 verse 5.

A Sadducee's belief is based on what they know, and as it was not in a Sadducee's experience to enter into the Holy of Holies in the temple like a Pharisee, who enter at the risk of their own life. Sadducees also did not have the same conviction about God's presence as they only processed the Laws.

Likewise, an atheist will tell you "There is no afterlife", and for them, this seems true.

Science students will only be taught, you are no more than your biological flesh, however, many medical practitioners have difficulty rationalizing their many patients described death experiences into this narrow empirical model because they leave it up to Psychology (Who also haven't had a death experience) to explain away all these patient's testimonies.

I used to be that atheist, (not an evolutionist) and now I have had that experience that demonstrated that the person is very much alive when their body is dead.

So I leave you with this hope. You will still be YOU, even when your body and its five senses are no longer capable of carrying you.

Your body is only a physical vehicle, you are the driver, the term 'death' is only the absence of Life, (Your life), in the same way as darkness is the absence of light. (Light is what is happening, Darkness is a description for the absence of the substance Photons - All science works like this!)

Truth is the substance, deceit or lies is the absence of truth. Atheism is the absence of Theo, God.

The substance missing in death is your life. So the Pharisees were correct in Acts 23,

There certainly is an afterlife.

Answer 9

I read chapter 14 and remember Abraham speak with god to ask Sodom for a second chance. It seems that Job comparing the mercy and comfort that Nature have from God, to the human - espicially "Tzadik" like job. Why him and not everyone else? Why nature got "second chance" while he left without any continuety?

It's not that Job believe or not in the after life etc, he is now in the middle of a different idea. He will speak about what he think about after life later - as explained in other answers.

Answer 10

• Use the King James and you want have to wrestle with English meaning. Those translators were the very best and were more qualified than any of the modern translators that hold them in question. Modern translators can't find 'better English words' because there aren't any. The best words have already been used by the King James Translators.

• James, the half-brother of Jesus, explained in one sentence what the book of Job is about - James 5:11b (KJV) and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. (It wasn't to show us Job. It was to show us the Lord.) James was raised with Jesus. I'm sure they discussed the scriptures. That explains to me why James is the only New Testament writer who mentions Job.

  • Job lived in Old Testament times - before Christ. In the Old Testament people went into the heart of the earth to await the resurrection of Christ when Christ would take them with him to heaven. Now when we die we go directly to heaven to await the resurrection of our glorified bodies. It was a fearful thing to die and descend into the heart of the earth until Christ came to get you. This is a lengthy discussion with many scriptures, but I have them and can show them to anyone who emails me ([email protected])