Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 14:13
O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
13 15. Having pursued the destiny of man through all its steps down to its lowest, its complete extinction in death, Job, with a revulsion created by the instinctive demands of the human spirit, rises to the thought that there might be another life after this one. This thought is expressed in the form of an impassioned desire.
To understand these verses the Hebrew conception of death must be remembered. Death was not an end of personal existence: the dead person subsisted, he did not live. He descended into Sheol, the abode of deceased persons. His existence was a dreamy shadow of his past life. He had no communion with the living, whether men or God; comp. Job 3:12-19; Job 10:21-22, Job 14:20-22. This idea of death is not strictly the teaching of revelation, it is the popular idea from which revelation starts, and revelation on the question rather consists in exhibiting to us how the pious soul struggled with this popular conception and sought to overcome it, and how faith demanded and realized, as faith does, its demand, that the communion with God enjoyed in this life should not be interrupted in death. This was in short a demand and a faith that the state of Sheol should be overleaped, and that the believing soul should be “taken” by God in death to Himself, cf. Psa 16:10; Psa 49:15; Psa 73:24. This was the solution that generally presented itself to the mind when death was contemplated. The present passage differs in two particulars. It does not exhibit such assured faith as these passages in the Psalms. The problem before the Psalmists was a much simpler one than that before Job. They were men who, when they wrote their words of faith, enjoyed God’s fellowship, and their faith protested against this fellowship being interrupted in death. But Job has lost the sense of God’s fellowship through his afflictions, which are to his mind proof of God’s estrangement from him, hence he has so to speak a double obstacle to overcome, where the Psalmists had only one, and this makes him do no more here than utter a prayer, while the Psalmists expressed a firm assurance. In the following chapters, especially ch. 19, Job also rises to assurance. In another particular this passage differs from these Psalms. It contemplates a different and much more complete solution of the problem. In both the hope of immortality has a purely religious foundation. It springs from the irrepressible longing for communion with God. The Psalmists, in the actual enjoyment of this communion, either protest against death absolutely (Psalms 16), and demand a continuance in life that this fellowship may continue that is, they rise to the idea of true immortality; or, contemplating death as a fact, they protest against the popular conception of it, and demand that the deceased person shall not sink into Sheol, but pass across its gulf to God. Job’s conception is different from either of these, because his circumstances are different. He does not enjoy the fellowship of God, his afflictions are evidence of the contrary. His firm conviction is that his malady is mortal, in other words, that God’s anger will pursue him to the grave. On this side of death he has no hope of a return to God’s favour. Hence, contemplating that he shall die under God’s anger, his thought is that he might remain in Sheol till God’s wrath be past, for He keepeth not His anger for ever; that God would appoint him a period to remain in death and then remember him with returning mercy and call him back again to His fellowship. But to his mind this involves a complete return to life again of the whole man ( Job 14:14), for in death there is no fellowship with God (Psa 6:5). Thus his solution, though it appears to his mind only as a momentary gleam of light, is broader than that of the Psalmists, and corresponds to that made known in subsequent revelation. It is probable that this conception, which the Author of the Poem allows Job to rise to out of the very extremity of his despair, was one not unfamiliar to himself (cf. Isa 24:22). The verses read as a whole:
13 Oh that thou wouldst hide me in Sheol,
That thou wouldst keep me secret till thy wrath be past,
That thou wouldst appoint me a set time and remember me
14 If a man die shall he live again?
All the days of my appointed time would I wait
Till my release came;
15 Thou wouldst call and I would answer thee,
Thou wouldst have a desire to the work of thine hands.
As Job follows the fascinating thought, the feeling forces itself upon his mind how much is implied in it, nothing less than that a man when dead should live again ( Job 14:14), but he will not allow himself to be arrested in his pursuit of the glorious vision he describes how he would wait all the period appointed to him (his “warfare,” cf. ch. Job 7:1) till his release came, and dwells upon the joy and readiness with which he would answer the voice of his Creator calling him to His fellowship again when He longed after the work of His hands long estranged and hidden from Him (ch. Job 10:3). The words “call” and “answer,” Job 14:15, have here naturally quite a different sense from the forensic or judicial one which belongs to them in ch. Job 13:22 and similar passages.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Oh that thou wouldest hide me in the grave; – compare the notes at Job 3:11 ff. Hebrew in Sheol – b–she‘ol. Vulgate, in inferno. Septuagint en Hade – in Hades. On the meaning of the word Sheol, see the notes at Isa 5:14. It does not mean here, I think, the grave. It means the region of departed spirits, the place of the dead, where he wished to be, until the tempest of the wrath of God should pass by. He wished to be shut up in some place where the fury of that tempest would not meet him, and where he would be safe. On the meaning of this passage, however, there has been considerable variety of opinion among expositors. Many suppose that the word here properly means the grave, and that Job was willing to wait there until the wrath of God should be spent, and then that he desired to be brought forth in the general resurrection of the dead.
So the Chaldee interprets it of the grave – . There is evidently a desire on the part of Job to be hid in some secret place until the tempest of wrath should sweep by, and until he should be safe. There is an expectation that he would live again at some future period, and a desire to live after the present tokens of the wrath of God should pass by. It is probably a wish for a safe retreat or a hiding-place – where he might be secure, as from a storm. A somewhat similar expression occurs in Isa 2:19, where it is said that people would go into holes and caverns until the storm of wrath should pass by, or in order to escape it. But whether Job meant the grave, or the place of departed spirits, cannot be determined, and is not material. In the view of the ancients the one was not remote from the other. The entrance to Sheol was the grave; and either of them would furnish the protection sought. It should be added, that the grave was with the ancients usually a cave, or an excavation from the rock, and such a place might suggest the idea of a hiding-place from the raging storm.
That thou wouldest appoint me a set time – When I should be delivered or rescued. Herder renders this, Appoint me then a new term. The word rendered a set time – choq – means, properly, something decreed, prescribed, appointed and here an appointed time when God would remember or revisit him. It is the expression of his lingering love of life. He had wished to die. He was borne down by heavy trials, and desired a release. He longed even for the grave; compare Job 3:20-22. But there is the instinctive love of life in his bosom, and he asks that God would appoint a time, though ever so remote, in which he would return to him, and permit him to live again. There is the secret hope of some future life – though remote; and he is willing to be hid for any period of time until the wrath of God should pass by, if he might live again. Such is the lingering desire of life in the bosom of man in the severest trials, and the darkest hours; and so instinctively does man look on even to the most remote period with the hope of life. Nature speaks out in the desires of Job; and one of the objects of the poem is to describe the workings of nature with reference to a future state in the severe trials to which he was subjected. We cannot but remark here, what support and consolation would he have found in the clear revelation which we have of the future world, and what a debt of gratitude do we owe to that gospel which has brought life and immortality to light!
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 13. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave] Dreadful as death is to others, I shall esteem it a high privilege; it will be to me a covert from the wind and from the tempest of this affliction and distress.
Keep me secret] Hide my soul with thyself, where my enemies cannot invade my repose; or, as the poet expresses it: –
“My spirit hide with saints above,
My body in the tomb.”
Job does not appear to have the same thing in view when he entreats God to hide him in the grave; and to keep him secret, until his wrath be past. The former relates to the body; the latter to the spirit.
That thou wouldest appoint me a set time] As he had spoken of the death of his body before, and the secreting of his spirit in the invisible world, he must refer here to the resurrection; for what else can be said to be an object of desire to one whose body is mingled with the dust?
And remember me!] When my body has paid that debt of death which it owes to thy Divine justice, and the morning of the resurrection is come, when it may be said thy wrath, appecha, “thy displeasure,” against the body is past, it having suffered the sentence denounced by thyself: Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die; then remember me-raise my body, unite my spirit to it, and receive both into thy glory for ever.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In the grave; either,
1. In some dark vault under ground, such as good men hide themselves in times of persecution, Heb 11:38. Lord, hide me in some hiding place from thy wrath, and all the intolerable effects of it, which are upon me; for I cannot be hid from thee, but by thee. Or,
2. In the grave, properly so called. Though I know life once lost is irrecoverable, yet I heartily desire death, rather than to continue in these torments. And if the next words and wish seem to suppose the continuance of his life, that is not strange; for he speaks like one almost distracted with his miseries, sometimes wishing one thing, sometimes another and the quite contrary, as such persons use to do. And these wishes may be understood disjunctively, I wish either that I were dead, or that God would give me life free from these torments. Or the place may be understood thus, I could wish, if it were possible, that I might lie in the grave for a time till these storms be blown over, and then be restored to a comfortable life.
That thou wouldest keep me secret; in some secret and safe place, under the shadow of thy wings and favour, that I may have some support and comfort from thee.
Until thy wrath be past; whilst I am oppressed with such grievous and various calamities; which he calls Gods wrath, because they were, or seemed to be, the effects of his wrath.
A set time, to wit, to my sufferings, as thou hast done to my life, Job 14:5.
Remember me, i.e. wherein thou wilt remember me, to wit, in mercy, or so as to deliver me; for it is well known that God is frequently said to forget those whom he suffers to continue in misery, and to remember those whom he delivers out of it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. Job wishes to be kept hiddenin the grave until God’s wrath against him shall have passed away. Sowhile God’s wrath is visiting the earth for the abounding apostasywhich is to precede the second coming, God’s people shall be hiddenagainst the resurrection glory (Isa26:19-21).
set timea decreed time(Ac 1:7).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And that thou wouldest hide me in the grave,…. The house appointed for all living, which some understand by the “chambers” in
Isa 26:20; The cemeteries or dormitories of the saints, where they lie and sleep until the indignation of God against a wicked world is over and past; or in Hades, the state of the dead, where they are insensible of what is done in this world, what calamities and judgments are on the inhabitants of it, and so are not affected and grieved with these things; or in some cavern of the earth, in the utmost recesses of it, in the very centre thereof, if possible; his wish is, to be buried alive, or to live in some subterraneous place, free from his present afflictions and misery, than to be upon earth with them:
that thou wouldest keep me secret; so that no eye should see him, that is, no human eye; for he did not expect to be hid from the sight of God, be he where he would, before whom hell and destruction, or the grave, are and have no covering; and not only be secret, but safe from all trials and troubles, oppressions and oppressors; especially as he may mean the grave where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest; the keys of which Christ keeps in his hands, and locks and unlocks, and none but him; and where he has laid up his jewels, the precious dust of his saints and where they and that will be preserved as hidden treasure:
until thy wrath be past; either with respect to others, an ungodly world, to punish whom God sometimes comes out of his place in great wrath and indignation; and to prevent his dear children and people from being involved in common and public calamities, he takes them away beforehand, and hides them in his chambers, Isa 26:19; or with respect to himself, as to his own apprehension of things, who imagined that the wrath of God was upon him, being severely afflicted by him; all the effects of which he supposed would not be removed until he was brought to the dust, from whence he came, and until his body was changed at the resurrection; till that time there are some appearances of the displeasure of against sin: and then follows another petition,
that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me; either for his going down to the grave, and being hid there, for which there is an appointed time; for as that is the place appointed for man, it is appointed for man to go unto it, and the time when, as appears from
Job 14:5; or his coming out of the grave, for his resurrection from thence, which also is fixed, even the last day, the day God has appointed to judge the world in righteousness by Christ at which time the dead will be raised; though of that day and hour no man knows: unless he should mean a time for deliverance from his afflictions which also is set; for God, as he settles the bounds of an affliction, how far it should go, and no farther, so likewise the time when it should end; and either of these Job might call a remembering of him, who thought himself in his present case, as a dead man, out of mind, as those that lie in the grave, remembered no more.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
13 Oh that Thou wouldst hide me in Shel,
That Thou wouldst conceal me till Thine anger change,
That Thou wouldst appoint me a time and then remember me!
14 If man dieth, shall he live again?
All the days of my warfare would I wait,
Until my change should come.
15 Thou wouldst call and I would answer,
Thou wouldst have a desire for the work of Thy hands –
16 For now thou numberest my steps,
And dost not restrain thyself over my sins.
The optative introduces a wish that has reference to the future, and is therefore, as at Job 6:8, followed by futt .; comp. on the other hand, Job 23:3, utinam noverim . The language of the wish reminds one of such passages in the Psalms as Psa 31:21; Psa 27:5 (comp. Isa 26:20): “In the day of trouble He hideth me in His pavilion, and in the secret of His tabernacle doth He conceal me.” So Job wishes that Hades, into which the wrath of God now precipitates him for ever, may only be a temporary place of safety for him, until the wrath of God turn away ( , comp. the causative, Job 9:13); that God would appoint to him, when there, a , i.e., a terminus ad quem (comp. Job 14:5), and when this limit should be reached, again remember him in mercy. This is a wish that Job marks out for himself. The reality is indeed different: “if ( ) a man dies, will he live again?” The answer which Job’s consciousness, ignorant of anything better, alone can give, is: No, there is no life after death. It is, however, none the less a craving of his heart that gives rise to the wish; it is the most favourable thought, – a desirable possibility, – which, if it were but a reality, would comfort him under all present suffering: “all the days of my warfare would I wait until my change came.” is the name he gives to the whole of this toilsome and sorrowful interval between the present and the wished-for goal, – the life on earth, which he likens to the service of the soldier or of the hireling (Job 7:1), and which is subject to an inevitable destiny (Job 5:7) of manifold suffering, together with the night of Hades, where this life is continued in its most shadowy and dismal phase. And does not here signify destruction in the sense of death, as the Jewish expositors, by comparing Isa 2:18 and Son 2:11, explain it; but (with reference to , comp. Job 10:17) the following after (Arab. chlft , succession, successor, i.e., of Mohammed), relief, change (syn. , exchange, barter), here of change of condition, as Psa 55:20, of change of mind; Aquila, Theod., . Oh that such a change awaited him! What a blessed future would it be if it should come to pass! Then would God call to him in the depth of Shel, and he, imprisoned until the appointed time of release, would answer Him from the deep. After His anger was spent, God would again yearn after the work of His hands (comp. Job 10:3), the natural loving relation between the Creator and His creature would again prevail, and it would become manifest that wrath is only a waning power (Isa 54:8), and love His true and essential attribute. Schlottman well observes: “Job must have had a keen perception of the profound relation between the creature and his Maker in the past, to be able to give utterance to such an imaginative expectation respecting the future.”
In Job 14:16, Job supports what is cheering in this prospect, with which he wishes he might be allowed to console himself, by the contrast of the present. is used here as in Job 6:21; is not, as elsewhere, where introduces the conclusion, confirmatory (indeed now = then indeed), but assigns a reason (for now). Now God numbers his steps (Job 13:27), watching him as a criminal, and does not restrain himself over his sin. Most modern expositors (Ew., Hlgst, Hahn, Schlottm.) translate: Thou observest not my sins, i.e., whether they are to be so severely punished or not; but this is poor. Raschi: Thou waitest not over my sins, i.e., to punish them; instead of which Ralbag directly: Thou waitest not for my sins = repentance or punishment; but is not supported in the meaning: to wait, by Gen 37:11. Aben-Ezra: Thou lookest not except on my sins, by supplying , according to Ecc 2:24 (where, however, probably should be read, and after , just as in Job 33:17, has fallen away). The most doubtful is, with Hirzel, to take the sentence as interrogative, in opposition to the parallelism: and dost Thou not keep watch over my sins? It seems to me that the sense intended must be derived from the phrase , which means to keep anger, and consequently to delay the manifestation of it (Amo 1:11). This phrase is here so applied, that we obtain the sense: Thou keepest not Thy wrath to thyself, but pourest it out entirely. Mercerus is substantially correct: non reservas nec differs peccati mei punitionem .
9. Job longs for an afterlife. (Job. 14:13-17)
TEXT 14:1317
13 Oh 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!
14 If a man die, shall he live again?
All the days of my warfare would I wait,
Till my release should come.
15 Thou wouldest call, and I would answer thee:
Thou wouldest have a desire to the work of thy hands.
16 But now thou numberest my steps:
Dost thou not watch over my sin?
17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag,
And thou fastenest up mine iniquity.
COMMENT 14:1317
Job. 14:13Job passionately longs for life. If there is a positive possibility of life after death, then Job could endure the present affliction. The abode of the dead (Sheol) could be Jobs hiding place. (Read Isa. 26:20 and Amo. 9:2.) Perhaps he is acknowledging a belief in life after death, or a strong desire that there might be one.
Job. 14:14The LXX omits the interrogative, and makes Job deliver a positive claimhe shall live again. The image is derived from a military figure of soldiers being relieved after strenuous serviceJob. 7:1.
Job. 14:15Again two views of God are struggling within Jobs heart. He longs for the former days of fellowship with God, from which his present agony has cut him off. Job so deeply longs for this relationship with God (Hebrew, care, be pale, color of silver) (Gen. 31:30; Psa. 84:3; and Isa. 29:22) that he is sick with care.
Job. 14:16This verse probably continues Job. 14:15, so R. S. V., but not A. V. God is graciously watching over Jobs every step; then, all of a sudden, God is jealously observing every detail in his life. Jobs hope is in the future; perhaps God will change His attitude toward him. The negative particle not in Job. 14:16 is inserted in order to smooth out the poetic parallelism. Job has vehemently complainedJob. 7:12; Job. 7:19, of Gods tyrannical observation, as a cosmic moral efficiency expert; now he hopes for grace rather than surveillance.[165]
[165] See D. H. Gard, J.B.L., LXXIII, 1954, pp. 137ff.
Job. 14:17The imagery reflects that of accounting or recording of Jobs sins.[166] He seeks to be acknowledged as righteousness. Righteousness is always a correlate of right relations in our daily experiences. Job has come as a Titan hoping to meet God as an equal. There has been no room for grace in the relationship. Job desires to meet God face to face but neither to change nor falter, nor repent.[167] Job has sought justification by seeking righteousness. Rather than seek help he would prefer to be himself with all the tortures of hell, if so it must be. Job has come before God with a radical over-self estimate of himself; and therein is his sickness unto death.[168]
[166] A. L. Oppenheim, Journal Near Eastern Studies, XVIII, 1959, pp. 121ff.
[167] Shelly, Prometheus Unbound, Act IV.
[168] Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling and The Sickness Unto Death (Double-day, Anchor pb., ed. 1954; also Princeton University Press, 1951, p. 114.) On the vital problem of the distance between God and man in Biblical data, neo-orthodoxy, egs. Barth-Brunner controversy, and Post-Vatican II Catholicism; but especially since the 19th century paradigm of evolution – Kant, Hegel, Marx, Freud, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, et. al., see R. Kroner, Kierkegaard or Hegel? Revue Internationale de Philosophic, 19, 1952, pp. 78.
Fourth strophe Job’s abiding faith in God’s deep love for his intelligent creatures illumes the regions of the dead with the hope that the time shall come when God’s wrath will “turn,” and the dead be released from sheol a hope which is immediately beclouded by the thought that God has already been preternaturally severe in punishing his transgressions, Job 14:13-17.
13. Thou wouldest hide me As men, for protection, hide treasures in the earth. The dead in the grave are God’s hidden treasures. Compare Psa 83:3. In the grave In sheol. See Excursus, p. 72. Gloomiest life in sheol is better than extinction of being.
Wrath be past Death itself was the great wrath for whose turning ( ) the pious dead in the earliest times were represented as waiting. (See LANGE’S Genesis, 275.) The ancients buried their dead in caverns or sepulchres of the rocks. These naturally suggested the idea of a covert from the tempest. The Hebrew hoped that a time would come for the storm to cease, and that the dominion of death, though long protracted, would have an end.
A set time In the opinion of Dr. Adam Clarke this refers to the resurrection: “for what else can be said to be an object of desire to one whose body is mingled with the dust?”
A Prayer to be Delivered from his Affliction
v. 13. Oh, that Thou wouldest hide me in the grave, v. 14. If a man die, shall he live again? v. 15. Thou shalt call, v. 16. For now Thou numberest my steps, v. 17. My transgression is sealed up in a bag, v. 18. And surely the mountain falling cometh to naught, v. 19. The waters wear the stones, v. 20. Thou prevailest forever against him, v. 21. His sons come to honor, v. 22. But his flesh upon him shall have pain, Job 14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Ver. 13. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave ] As in a sweet and safe repository ( Sepulchrum est quasi scrinium vel capsa in quam reponitur corpus ), sanctuary! my soul meanwhile living and reigning with thee in heaven, expecting a glorious resurrection, and saying, How long, Lord, holy and true? The fable or fancy of Psychopannychia hath been long since hissed out, though lately revived by some libertines, that last brood of Beelzebub; our mortalists especially, who say, that the body and soul die together. But what saith the apostle, Rom 8:10 ? “If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Now that Job thus woos death, and petitions for the grave, it is manifest that he saw some good in it, and that he promised himself by it malorum ademptionem, bonorum adeptionem, freedom from evil, and fulness of good. We should learn to familiarize death to ourselves, and put the grave under the fairest and easiest apprehensions, that we hear God speaking to us, as once he did Jacob, Fear not to go down to Egypt (so down to the grave), for I will go with thee, and will surely bring thee up again, Gen 46:3-4 . Or as he did his labouring Church, Isa 26:20 , “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.”
That thou wouldest keep me secret
Until thy wrath be past
That thou wouldest appoint me a set time
And remember me O. Figure of speech Ecphonesis. App-6.
the grave = Sheol. App-35.
Job 14:13-17
Job 14:13-17
JOB’S HOPE OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
“Oh, 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!
If a man die, shall he live again?
All the days of my warfare WILL I wait,
Till my release should come.
Thou SHALT call, and I WILL answer thee:
Thou wouldest have a desire to the work of thy hands.
But now thou numberest my steps:
Dost thou not watch over my sin?
My transgression is sealed up in a bag,
And thou fastenest up mine iniquity.”
Note the capitalized words in Job 14:14-15. These are the marginal alternatives in the ASV, and by all means should be used here. This paragraph is not some kind of a vague hope on Job’s part, as if he were trying to lift himself by his own bootstraps; this passage is a prayer to God, in which he asks God to hide him (temporarily) in Sheol until his anger is spent, affirming Job’s conviction that at the time indicated, God WILL call (not a vague hope that he might) and that Job WILL hear and respond (Job 14:15). The discerning reader will understand at once that this is a radical departure from a lot that has been written on this chapter.
“If a man die, shall he live again” (Job 14:14)? The answer that the scholars generally give here is a decided NO; but we reject that misunderstanding of the passage.
We are delighted that in Vol. 13 of the Tyndale Commentary, we find a valid scholarly opinion which we can accept: “Job here gives a very clear expression to his belief that, even after he lies down in Sheol, God will call him out to life again (Job 14:15).” There is only one reason for the blindness of many scholars on this point; and, as cited by Andersen, it is solely due to, “Their a priori belief that the idea of a resurrection arose quite late in Israel’s thought.” That false theory, like many another liberal axiom, is totally false. Abraham offered Isaac, being able to do so only because of his faith in the resurrection (Heb 11:19).
The true answer, therefore to the question in Job 14:14, “If a man die, shall he live again”? is Yes, Indeed! Amen.
It is a help in understanding Job to remember that God Himself, when he appeared in the mighty wind to Job and his friends, declared that Job, throughout this book spoke the truth regarding God; and we consider that such a declaration can mean only that Job was an inspired man in his great discourses throughout. He spoke by the Spirit of God. That is the reason we have the Book of Job in the canon.
The ridiculous notion that Job in this passage is “feeling his way” toward some epic truth, but that he has, as yet, no conviction about it should be rejected. Job’s firm faith in the resurrection of the dead (Ch. 19), is not something that Job cooked up out of his own subjective feelings. What Job stated in Job 19 is the same thing that he believed when he was speaking in chapter 14. What we have here is not the picture of some mortal man “feeling his way” toward God and finally, after all kinds of errors, at last coming up with a declaration that has inspired all men for ages. The great message of Job 19 is absolutely nothing that Job “worked out,” and “finally arrived at.” God spoke to all of us through Job.
“My transgression is sealed up in a bag” (Job 14:17). We agree with Andersen that, “These transgressions have been sealed up in order to hide them, and not for keeping them to be used at some time of reckoning.” Thus we have the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins making its appearance here in the inspired words of Job.
E.M. Zerr:
Job 14:13. Job would have preferred death to life in misery if it had pleased God to release him from this life.
Job 14:14. All punctuation marks in the Bible have been added by man. Most of them are correct but we should be careful not to be misled by them. The question mark in the verse is not correct, for Job had no doubt of another life. The statement has the force of a positive declaration as if he had said, “Though a man die, he shall live again.” Because of that belief Job was ready to wait for the appointed time to come when his vile, decaying, diseased body would be changed into one of deathless vigor and of immortal structure.
Job 14:15. Thou shalt call agrees with the exact words of Jesus in Joh 5:28-29.
Job 14:16. Numberest my steps means the steps on earth are limited by the restrictions that God has placed on all mankind. See Gen 2:17; Rom 8:20; Heb 9:27.
Job 14:17. Sealed up in a bud means that God knows all about the conduct of man even though it is unknown to others.
grave
Heb. “Sheol,” (See Scofield “Hab 2:5”).
hide me: Job 3:17-19, Isa 57:1, Isa 57:2
until: Isa 12:1, Isa 26:20, Isa 26:21
appoint me: Mar 13:32, Act 1:7, Act 17:31
remember: Gen 8:1, Psa 106:4, Luk 23:42
Reciprocal: Gen 17:21 – at Gen 27:46 – I am Job 6:9 – that it would Job 7:1 – Is there Job 10:1 – My soul Job 27:19 – shall lie Job 36:20 – Desire Job 40:13 – Hide Psa 39:4 – make Ecc 2:17 – I hated Jer 20:18 – came
Job 14:13. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave The grave is not only a resting-place, but a hiding-place to the children of God: Christ has the key of the grave to open and let in now, and to let out at the resurrection. God hides his people in the grave as we hide our treasure in a place of secrecy and safety; and he that hides will find what he has hid, and nothing shall be lost. O that thou wouldst hide me, not only from the storms and troubles of this life, but for the bliss and glory of a better life; let me lie in the grave reserved for immortality, in secret from all the world, but not from thee, not from those eyes which saw my substance when first curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, Psa 139:15-16. Thus, it was not only in a passionate weariness of this life that he wished to die, but in a pious assurance of a better life, to which at length he should arise. Until thy wrath be past As long as our bodies lie in the grave there are some effects of Gods wrath against sin, but when the body is raised, that wrath is wholly past, and death, the last enemy, is totally destroyed. That thou wouldest appoint me a set time Not only fix a time when thou wilt end my sufferings and my life, but when thou wilt remember my flesh lodged in the grave, as thou didst remember Noah and every living thing in the ark, Gen 8:1. The bodies of the saints shall not be forgotten in the dust; there is a time appointed, a set time, for their being inquired after.
Job 14:13-15. If God, moved by longing for His creatures, would only restore Job to life! He who rejuvenates the tree, could reanimate the man. Death would then be a proof of the Divine love: it would be Gods hiding Job in Sheol from His own wrath, till it was over (Job 14:13). In this case Job would welcome death (Job 14:14). For after it would come a time of uninterrupted communion with God (Job 14:15). The first emergence of hope was in Job 7:21. Here the hope is stronger, and it will be stronger again yet.
Job 14:14. Duhm follows LXX If a man might die and live again! This seems best: if we retain the text, the question is asked without being answered: the second line continues the thought of Job 14:13.
14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy {e} wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and {f} remember me!
(e) By this he declares that the fear of God’s judgment was the reason why he desired to die.
(f) That is, relieve my pain and take me to mercy.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes