Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 14:5
Seeing his days [are] determined, the number of his months [are] with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
5, 6. Man being of few days and full of trouble Job pleads that God would not load him with uncommon afflictions, but leave him oppressed with no more than those natural to his short and evil life.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Seeing his days – are determined Since man is so frail, and so short-lived, let him alone, that he may pass his little time with some degree of comfort and then die; see the notes at Job 7:19-21. The word determined here means fixed, settled. God has fixed the number of his days, so that they cannot be exceeded; compare the notes at Isa 10:23, and notes at Psa 90:10.
The number of his months are with thee – Thou hast the ordering of them, or they are determined by thee.
Thou hast appointed his bounds – Thou hast fixed a limit, or hast determined the time which he is to live, and he cannot go beyond it. There is no elixir of life that can prolong our days beyond that period. Soon we shall come to that outer limit of life, and then we must die. When that is we know not, and it is not desirable to know. It is better that it should be concealed. If we knew that it was near, it would fill us with gloom, and deter us from the efforts and the plans of life altogether. If it were remote, we should be careless and secure, and should think there was time enough yet to prepare to die. As it is, we know that the period is not very far distant; we know not but that it may be very near at hand, and we would be always ready.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. Seeing his days are determined] The general term of human life is fixed by God himself; in vain are all attempts to prolong it beyond this term. Several attempts have been made in all nations to find an elixir that would expel all the seeds of disease, and keep men in continual health; but all these attempts have failed. Basil, Valentine, Norton, Dastin, Ripley, Sandivogius, Artephius, Geber, Van Helmont, Paracelsus, Philalethes, and several others, both in Europe and Asia, have written copiously on the subject, and have endeavoured to prove that a tincture might be produced, by which all imperfect metals may be transmuted into perfect; and an elixir by which the human body may be kept in a state of endless repair and health. And these profess to teach the method by which this tincture and this elixir may be made! Yet all these are dead; and dead, for aught we know, comparatively young! Artephius is, indeed, said to have lived ninety years, which is probable; but some of his foolish disciples, to give credit to their thriftless craft, added another cipher, and made his age nine hundred! Man may endeavour to pass the bound; and God may, here and there, produce a Thomas Parr, who died in 1635, aged one hundred and fifty-two; and a Henry Jenkins, who died in 1670, aged one hundred and sixty-nine; but these are rare instances, and do not affect the general term. Nor can death be avoided. Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return, is the law, and that will ever render nugatory all such pretended tinctures and elixirs.
But, although man cannot pass his appointed bounds, yet he may so live as never to reach them; for folly and wickedness abridge the term of human life; and therefore the psalmist says, Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out HALF their days, Ps 55:23, for by indolence, intemperance, and disorderly passions, the life of man is shortened in cases innumerable. We are not to understand the bounds as applying to individuals, but to the race in general. Perhaps there is no case in which God has determined absolutely that man’s age shall be so long, and shall neither be more nor less. The contrary supposition involves innumerable absurdities.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
His days; the days or (as it follows) months of his life. Are determined; are by thy sentence and decree limited to a certain period.
With thee, i.e. exactly known to thee, or in thy power and disposal. Thou hast appointed a certain end of his days, beyond which he cannot prolong his life; and therefore let this short life and unavoidable death suffice for mans punishment, and do not add further and sorer calamities.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. determined (Job 7:1;Isa 10:23; Dan 9:27;Dan 11:36).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Seeing his days [are] determined,…. Or “cut out” i, exactly and precisely, how many he shall live, and what shall befall him every day of his life; whose life, because of the shortness of it, is rather measured by days than vents:
the number of his months [are] with thee; before him, in his sight, in his account, and fixed and settled by him:
thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass; the boundaries of his life the period of his days, beyond which he cannot go; the term of man’s life is so peremptorily fixed by God, that he cannot die sooner, nor live longer, than he has determined he should; as the time of a man’s birth, so the time of his death is according to the purpose of God; and all intervening moments and articles of time, and all things that befall a man throughout the whole course of his life, all fall under the appointment of God, and are according to his determinate will; and when God requires of man his soul, no one has power over his spirit to retain it one moment; yet this hinders not the use of means for the preservation and comfort of life, since these are settled as well as the end, and are under the divine direction: the word for bounds signifies sometimes “statutes” k: though not to be understood of laws appointed by God, either of a moral or ceremonial nature; but here it signifies set, stated, appointed times l Seneca m says the same thing;
“there is a boundary fixed for every man, which always remains where it is set, nor can any move it forward by any means whatsoever.”
i “exacte praefiniti sunt”, Tigurine version. k “statuta ejus”, V. L. Mercerus, Schmidt. l “Stata tempora”, Beza. m Consolat. ad Marciam, c. 20.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
5. Seeing Literally, “ If his days are determined,” (as is the case.) This entire verse, with its three conditions, the two latter of which spring out of the former, is an hypothesis on which Job rests his touching appeal in ver.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 14:5 Seeing his days [are] determined, the number of his months [are] with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
Ver. 5. Seeing his days are determined, &c. ] God hath set every man both his time (whether shorter, called here his days, or longer, the number of his months, they have both their bounds which none can pass) and also his task, Act 13:25 . John fulfilled his course, et in brevi vitae spatio tempora virtutum multa replevit, and he lived long in a little time; he wrought hard, as not willing to be taken with his task undone (Hieron.). So Act 13:36 . David, after he had served his own generation, and had done all the will of God, fell on sleep. See more of this on Job 7:1 .
Thou hast appointed his bounds
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
bounds. Four early printed editions read “fixed times”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
his days: Job 14:14, Job 7:1, Job 12:10, Psa 39:4, Dan 5:26, Dan 5:30, Dan 9:24, Dan 11:36, Luk 12:20, Act 17:26, Heb 9:27
the number: Job 21:21
thou hast: Job 23:13, Job 23:14, Psa 104:9, Psa 104:29, Dan 4:35, Rev 1:18, Rev 3:7
Reciprocal: 1Sa 26:10 – his day Job 16:22 – a few years Job 30:23 – the house Psa 39:13 – spare Ecc 3:2 – and a time Ecc 8:8 – is no Isa 38:5 – I will
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 14:5-6. Seeing his days are determined Limited to a certain period. The number of his months is with thee Exactly known to thee, and in thy power and disposal. Thou hast appointed his bounds, &c. Thou hast appointed a certain end of his days, beyond which he cannot prolong his life. Turn from him, that he may rest Withdraw thine afflicting hand from him, that he may have some present ease and comfort. Till he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day Give him some respite till he finish his course, and come to the period of his life, which thou hast allotted him, as a man appoints a set time to a hired servant; which period will be as welcome to him as the end of his day of labour and toil is to the hireling. This idea is implied in the word , jertzeh, here rendered, he shall accomplish. Which properly means, he shall be pleased, or delighted. And the sense seems to be, As the poor mercenary rests and rejoices when he has finished the work of the day, and received his wages; so must that be an acceptable and joyful time, which puts a period to the life and sufferings of a man sinking under the burden of numerous and heavy troubles, and which introduces him into a state of perfect rest and endless felicity.