Bible Study Job 14
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Job 14 · WEB

Job on Human Frailty and the Hope of Life After Death

Listen — WEB narration 0:00 / 0:00 Narration: World English Bible (David Williams), public domain — AudioTreasure.

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"Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days and full of trouble.
2He comes out like a flower and withers. He also flees like a shadow and doesn't continue.
3Do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you?
4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
5Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can't pass,
6look away from him, that he may rest, until he shall accomplish, as a hired hand, his day.
7"For there is hope for a tree. If it is cut down, it will sprout again. Its tender branch will not cease.
8Though its root grows old in the earth and its stock dies in the ground,
9yet through the scent of water it will bud and produce boughs like a plant.
10But man dies and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?
11As the waters fail from the sea and the river wastes and dries up,
12so man lies down and doesn't rise. Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.
13"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!
14If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my warfare I would wait, until my release should come.
15You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire for the work of your hands.
16But now you count my steps. Don't you watch over my sin?
17My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity.
18"But the mountain falling comes to nothing. The rock is removed from its place.
19The waters wear away the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.
20You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change his face, and send him away.
21His sons come to honor, and he doesn't know it. They are brought low, but he doesn't perceive it of them.
22But his flesh on him has pain, and his soul within him mourns."
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Summary

Job meditates on human mortality with breathtaking beauty and melancholy. A tree has more hope than a man: if a tree is cut down, the scent of water can revive it. But when a man dies, he is gone. Then Job glimpses something almost too daring to speak: what if God could hide him in Sheol temporarily, until his anger passes — and then call him back? "You would call, and I would answer." It is a proto-resurrection hope, flickering in the darkness. But Job cannot sustain it; the closing verses return to erosion and loss. The chapter ends with a man in pain and mourning.

Themes

  • Human mortality and the comparative fragility of human life
  • A flickering hope for something beyond death
  • The longing for restored relationship as the deepest human desire

Key verses

  • Job 14:1-2 — “Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers.”
  • Job 14:14-15 — “If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my warfare I would wait... You would call, and I would answer you.”
  • Job 14:7 — “There is hope for a tree. If it is cut down, it will sprout again.”

Context & background

Job 14:14 — "If a man dies, will he live again?" — is one of the most profound questions in Scripture and one of the earliest glimpses of resurrection hope in the Old Testament. Job does not answer it with certainty; it remains a wish, a hope, a conditional: "if only." The Hebrew word translated "warfare" or "hard service" is the same word used in Isaiah 40:2 for the "warfare" that is ended when Jerusalem is forgiven. Job 14:15 — "You would have a desire for the work of your hands" — is perhaps the most tender line in the chapter: Job imagines a God who misses him, who wants him back. This is not the God of cold divine omnipotence but the God of personal relationship.

Cross-references

  • 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 — The resurrection of the dead as the answer to "will he live again?"
  • Isaiah 40:2 — "Her warfare is ended" — the same word as "hard service" in v. 14; the exile-as-death imagery
  • Job 19:25-27 — Job will return to resurrection hope with even more confidence
  • John 11:25 — "I am the resurrection and the life" — Jesus answers Job's question directly
  • Psalm 103:15-16 — "As for man, his days are like grass... the wind passes over it and it is gone" — the same meditation

Check your reading

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  1. Observe

    How does Job describe the brevity and quality of human life in verses 1-2?

  2. Observe

    What contrast does Job draw between a tree and a man in verses 7-12?

  3. Interpret

    What is the theological significance of Job's question "If a man dies, will he live again?" (v. 14)?

  4. Interpret

    What does Job's image of God having "a desire for the work of your hands" (v. 15) reveal about God's relationship with humanity?

  5. Apply

    How might Job's brutally honest reckoning with mortality ("few days and full of trouble") actually shape a healthier life today?

  6. Apply

    When you experience flickers of hope that fade back into darkness — like Job's resurrection glimpse that gives way to grief — how should you respond?

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