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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 14:7

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For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

7. For there is hope of a tree, if ] lit. for a tree hath hope; if it be cut down it will sprout again &c.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7 12. The irreparable extinction of man’s life in death. His destiny is sadder even than that of the tree. His sleep in death is eternal.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

For there is hope of a tree – This passage to Job 14:12, is one of exquisite beauty. Its object is to state reasons why man should be permitted to enjoy this life. A tree, if cut down, might spring up again and flourish; but not man. He died to rise no more; he is cut down and lives not again. The passage is important as expressing the prevalent sentiment of the time in which Job lived about the future condition of man, and is one that deserves a close examination. The great question is, whether Job believed in the future state, or in the resurrection of the dead? On this question one or two things are clear at the outset.

(1) He did not believe that man would spring up from the grave in any sense similar to the mode in which the sprout or germ of a tree grows up when the tree is cut down.

(2) He did not believe in the doctrine of metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls; a doctrine that was so common among the ancients.

In this respect the patriarchal religion stood aloof from the systems of paganism, and there is not to be found, that I know of, any expression that would lead us to suppose that they had ever embraced it, or had even heard of it. The general sentiment here is, that if a tree is cut down, it may be expected to shoot up again, and another tree will be found in its place – as is the case with the chestnut, the willow, the oak. But Job says that there was nothing like this to happen to man. There was no root, no germ, no seminal principle from which he would be made to live again on the earth. He was to be finally cut off, from all his pleasures and his friends here, and to go away to return no more. Still, that Job believed in his continued existence beyond the grave – his existence in the dark and gloomy world of shades, is apparent from the whole book, and indeed from the very passage before us; see Job 14:13 – compare Job 10:21-22. The image here is one that is very beautiful, and one that is often employed by poets. Thus, Moschus, in his third Idyl, as translated by Gisborne:

The meanest herb we trample in the field,

Or in the garden nurture, when its leaf

At winters touch is blasted, and its place

Forgotten, soon its vernal bud renews,

And from short slumber wakes to life again.

Man wakes no more! Man, valiant, glorious, wise,

When death once chills him, sinks in sleep profound.

A long, unconscious, never-ending sleep.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 7. For there is hope of a tree] We must not, says Calmet, understand this of an old tree, the stem and roots of which are dried up and rotted: but there are some trees which grow from cuttings, and some which, though pulled out of the earth, and having had their roots dried and withered by long exposure to the sun and wind, will, on being replanted, take root and resume their verdure. There are also certain trees, the fibres of which are so solid, that if after several years they be steeped in water, they resume their vigour, the tubes dilate, and the blossoms or flowers which were attached to them expand; as I have often witnessed in what is called the rose of Jericho. There are few trees which will not send forth new shoots, when the stock is cut down level with the earth.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

But man, though a far nobler creature, is in a much worse condition, and when once he loseth this present and worldly life, he never recovers it; therefore show some pity to him, and give him some comfort whilst he lives.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

7. Man may the more claim apeaceful life, since, when separated from it by death, he neverreturns to it. This does not deny a future life, but a return to thepresent condition of life. Job plainly hopes for a futurestate (Job 14:13; Job 7:2).Still, it is but vague and trembling hope, not assurance;excepting the one bright glimpse in Job19:25. The Gospel revelation was needed to change fears, hopes,and glimpses into clear and definite certainties.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,…. That is, if it be cut down to the root, and only the stump of the root is left in the ground, as the tree in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Da 4:15, yet the owner of it may entertain a hope that it is not utterly destroyed, but will bud out again; or “change” s its state and condition, and become flourishing again: or “renew” t itself; and its strength, and put out new shoots and branches; either it will rise up into a new body, as the laurel, as Pliny u relates, or produce new sprouts as the willow, alder tree, and others; for this is not true of every tree, though it may be of many; for it is w reported of the cypress tree, when cut down, it never sprouts out any more, unless in one place, in Aenaria; but since this is the case of some, it is sufficient to Job’s purpose:

and that the tender branch thereof will not cease; from shooting out; or “its suckers will not cease” x; which may be observed frequently to grow out of the roots of trees, even of those that are cut down, such as above mentioned.

s “mutabit se”, Drusius; “conditionem suam”, Piscator. t “Renovat se”, Schmidt. u Nat. Hist. apud Pinedam in loc. w Servius in Virgil. Aeneid. l. 3. p. 681. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 16. c. 33. x “sugensque ejus surculus”, Schultens.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

7 For there is hope for a tree:

If it is hewn down, it sprouts again,

And its shoot ceaseth not.

8 If its root becometh old in the ground,

And its trunk dieth off in the dust:

9 At the scent of water it buddeth,

And bringeth forth branches like a young plant.

As the tree falleth so it lieth, says a cheerless proverb. Job, a true child of his age, has a still sadder conception of the destiny of man in death; and the conflict through which he is passing makes this sad conception still sadder than it otherwise is. The fate of the tree is far from being so hopeless as that of man; for (1) if a tree is hewn down, it (the stump left in the ground) puts forth new shoots (on , vid., on Psa 90:6), and young branches ( , the tender juicy sucker ) do not cease. This is a fact, which is used by Isaiah (Isa 6:1-13) as an emblem of a fundamental law in operation in the history of Israel: the terebinth and oak there symbolize Israel; the stump ( ) is the remnant that survives the judgment, and this remnant becomes the seed from which a new sanctified Israel springs up after the old is destroyed. Carey is certainly not wrong when he remarks that Job thinks specially of the palm (the date), which is propagated by such suckers; Shaw’s expression corresponds exactly to : “when the old trunk dies, there is never wanting one or other of these offsprings to succeed it.” Then (2) if the root of a tree becomes old ( inchoative Hiphil: senescere , Ew. 122, c) in the earth, and its trunk ( also of the stem of an undecayed tree, Isa 40:24) dies away in the dust, it can nevertheless regain its vitality which had succumbed to the weakness of old age: revived by the scent ( always of scent, which anything exhales, not, perhaps Son 1:3 only excepted, odor = odoratus ) of water, it puts forth buds for both leaves and flowers, and brings forth branches ( , prop. cuttings, twigs) again, , like a plant, or a young plant (the form of in pause), therefore, as if fresh planted, lxx . One is here at once reminded of the palm which, on the one hand, is pre-eminently a ,

(Note: When the English army landed in Egypt in 1801, Sir Sydney Smith gave the troops the sure sign, that wherever date-trees grew there must be water; and this is supported by the fact of people digging after it generally, within a certain range round the tree within which the roots of the tree could obtain moisture from the fluid. – Vid., R. Wilson’s History of the Expedition to Egypt, p. 18.)

on the other hand possesses a wonderful vitality, whence it is become a figure for youthful vigour. The palm and the phoenix have one name, and not without reason. The tree reviving as from the dead at the scent of water, which Job describes, is like that wondrous bird rising again from its own ashes (vid., on Job 29:18). Even when centuries have at last destroyed the palm – says Masius, in his beautiful and thoughtful studies of nature – thousands of inextricable fibres of parasites cling about the stem, and delude the traveller with an appearance of life.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Death Anticipated.

B. C. 1520.

7 For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. 8 Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; 9 Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. 10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? 11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: 12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. 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! 14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. 15 Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

We have seen what Job has to say concerning life; let us now see what he has to say concerning death, which his thoughts were very much conversant with, now that he was sick and sore. It is not unseasonable, when we are in health, to think of dying; but it is an inexcusable incogitancy if, when we are already taken into the custody of death’s messengers, we look upon it as a thing at a distance. Job had already shown that death will come, and that its hour is already fixed. Now here he shows,

I. That death is a removal for ever out of this world. This he had spoken of before (Job 7:9; Job 7:10), and now he mentions it again; for, though it be a truth that needs not be proved, yet it needs to be much considered, that it may be duly improved.

1. A man cut down by death will not revive again, as a tree cut down will. What hope there is of a tree he shows very elegantly, v. 7-9. If the body of the tree be cut down, and only the stem or stump left in the ground, though it seem dead and dry, yet it will shoot out young boughs again, as if it were but newly planted. The moisture of the earth and the rain of heaven are, as it were, scented and perceived by the stump of a tree, and they have an influence upon it to revive it; but the dead body of a man would not perceive them, nor be in the least affected by them. In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, when his being deprived of the use of his reason was signified by the cutting down of a tree, his return to it again was signified by the leaving of the stump in the earth with a band of iron and brass to be wet with the dew of heaven, Dan. iv. 15. But man has no such prospect of a return to life. The vegetable life is a cheap and easy thing: the scent of water will recover it. The animal life, in some insects and fowls, is so: the heat of the sun retrieves it. But the rational soul, when once retired, is too great, too noble, a thing to be recalled by any of the powers of nature; it is out of the reach of sun or rain, and cannot be restored but by the immediate operations of Omnipotence itself; for (v. 10) man dieth and wasteth, away, yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? Two words are here used for man:–Geber, a mighty man, though mighty, dies; Adam, a man of the earth, because earthy, gives up the ghost. Note, Man is a dying creature. He is here described by what occurs, (1.) Before death: he wastes away; he is continually wasting, dying daily, spending upon the quick stock of life. Sickness and old age are wasting things to the flesh, the strength, the beauty. (2.) In death: he gives up the ghost; the soul leaves the body, and returns to God who gave it, the Father of spirits. (3.) After death: Where is he? He is not where he was; his place knows him no more; but is he nowhere? So some read it. Yes, he is somewhere; and it is a very awful consideration to think where those are that have given up the ghost, and where we shall be when we give it up. It has gone to the world of spirits, gone into eternity, gone to return no more to this world.

2. A man laid down in the grave will not rise up again, Job 14:11; Job 14:12. Every night we lie down to sleep, and in the morning we awake and rise again; but at death we must lie down in the grave, not to awake or rise again to such a world, such a state, as we are now in, never to awake or arise until the heavens, the faithful measures of time, shall be no more, and consequently time itself shall come to an end and be swallowed up in eternity; so that the life of man may fitly be compared to the waters of a land-flood, which spread far and make a great show, but they are shallow, and when they are cut off from the sea or river, the swelling and overflowing of which was the cause of them, they soon decay and dry up, and their place knows them no more. The waters of life are soon exhaled and disappear. The body, like some of those waters, sinks and soaks into the earth, and is buried there; the soul, like others of them, is drawn upwards, to mingle with the waters above the firmament. The learned Sir Richard Blackmore makes this also to be a dissimilitude. If the waters decay and be dried up in the summer, yet they will return again in the winter; but it is not so with the life of man. Take part of his paraphrase in his own words:–

A flowing river, or a standing lake,

May their dry banks and naked shores forsake;

Their waters may exhale and upward move,

Their channel leave to roll in clouds above;

But the returning water will restore

What in the summer they had lost before:

But if, O man! thy vital streams desert

Their purple channels and defraud the heart,

With fresh recruits they ne’er will be supplied,

Nor feel their leaping life’s returning tide.

II. That yet there will be a return of man to life again in another world, at the end of time, when the heavens are no more. Then they shall awake and be raised out of their sleep. The resurrection of the dead was doubtless an article of Job’s creed, as appears, ch. xix. 26, and to that, it should seem, he has an eye here, where, in the belief of that, we have three things:–

1. A humble petition for a hiding-place in the grave, v. 13. It was not only 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. O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave! The grave is not only a resting-place, but a hiding-place, to the people of God. God has the key of the grave, to let in now and to let out at the resurrection. He hides men in the grave, as we hide our treasure in a place of secresy and safety; and he who hides will find, 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; Psa 139:16. There let me lie, (1.) Until thy wrath be past. As long as the bodies of the saints lie in the grave, so long there are some remains of that wrath which they were by nature children of, so long they are under some of the effects of sin; but, when the body is raised, it is wholly past–death, the last enemy, will then be totally destroyed. (2.) Until the set time comes for my being remembered, as Noah was remembered in the ark (Gen. viii. 1), where God not only hid him from the destruction of the old world, but reserved him for the reparation of a new world. The bodies of the saints shall not be forgotten in the grave. There is a time appointed, a time set, for their being enquired after. We cannot be sure that we shall look through the darkness of our present troubles and see good days after them in this world; but, if we can but get well to the grave, we may with an eye of faith look through the darkness of that, as Job here, and see better days on the other side of it, in a better world.

2. A holy resolution patiently to attend the will of God both in his death and his resurrection (v. 14): If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait until my change come. Job’s friends proving miserable comforters, he set himself to be the more his own comforter. His case was now bad, but he pleases himself with the expectation of a change. I think it cannot be meant of his return to a prosperous condition in this world. His friends indeed flattered him with the hopes of that, but he himself all along despaired of it. Comforts founded upon uncertainties at best must needs be uncertain comforts; and therefore, no doubt, it is something more sure than that which he here bears up himself with the expectation of. The change he waits for must therefore be understood either, (1.) Of the change of the resurrection, when the vile body shall be changed (Phil. iii. 21), and a great and glorious change it will be; and then that question, If a man die, shall he live again? must be taken by way of admiration. “Strange! Shall these dry bones live! If so, all the time appointed for the continuance of the separation between soul and body my separate soul shall wait until that change comes, when it shall be united again to the body, and my flesh also shall rest in hope.” Ps. xvi. 9. Or, (2.) Of the change at death. “If a man die, shall he live again? No, not such a life as he now lives; and therefore I will patiently wait until that change comes which will put a period to my calamities, and not impatiently wish for the anticipation of it, as I have done.” Observe here, [1.] That it is a serious thing to die; it is a work by itself. It is a change; there is a visible change in the body, its appearance altered, its actions brought to an end, but a greater change with the soul, which quits the body, and removes to the world of spirits, finishes its state of probation and enters upon that of retribution. This change will come, and it will be a final change, not like the transmutations of the elements, which return to their former state. No, we must die, not thus to live again. It is but once to die, and that had need be well done that is to be done but once. An error here is fatal, conclusive, and not again to be rectified. [2.] That therefore it is the duty of every one of us to wait for that change, and to continue waiting all the days of our appointed time. The time of life is an appointed time; that time is to be reckoned by days; and those days are to be spent in waiting for our change. That is, First, We must expect that it will come, and think much of it. Secondly, We must desire that it would come, as those that long to be with Christ. Thirdly, We must be willing to tarry until it does come, as those that believe God’s time to be the best. Fourthly, We must give diligence to get ready against it comes, that it may be a blessed change to us.

3. A joyful expectation of bliss and satisfaction in this (v. 15): Then thou shalt call, and I will answer thee. Now, he was under such a cloud that he could not, he durst not, answer (Job 9:15; Job 9:35; Job 13:22); but he comforted himself with this, that there would come a time when God would call and he should answer. Then, that is, (1.) At the resurrection, “Thou shalt call me out of the grave, by the voice of the archangel, and I will answer and come at the call.” The body is the work of God’s hands, and he will have a desire to that, having prepared a glory for it. Or, (2.) At death: “Thou shalt call my body to the grave, and my soul to thyself, and I will answer, Ready, Lord, ready–Coming, coming; here I am.” Gracious souls can cheerfully answer death’s summons, and appear to his writ. Their spirits are not forcibly required from them (as Luke xii. 20), but willingly resigned by them, and the earthly tabernacle not violently pulled down, but voluntarily laid down, with this assurance, “Thou wilt have a desire to the work of thy hands. Thou hast mercy in store for me, not only as made by thy providence, but new-made by thy grace;” otherwise he that made them will not save them. Note, Grace in the soul is the work of God’s own hands, and therefore he will not forsake it in this world (Ps. cxxxviii. 8), but will have a desire to it, to perfect it in the other, and to crown it with endless glory.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

8. When man goes to his death, he does not return. (Job. 14:7-12)

TEXT 14:712

7 For there is hope of a tree,

If it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
And that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

8 Though the root thereof wax old in the earth,

And the stock thereof die in the ground;

9 Yet through the scent of water it will bud,

And put forth boughs like a plant.

10 But man dieth, and is laid low:

Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

11 As the waters fail from the sea,

And the river wasteth and drieth up;

12 So man lieth down and riseth not:

Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake,
Nor be roused out of their sleep.

COMMENT 14:712

Job. 14:7The figures now change to a tree. Trees can be cut down, but some species will sprout again.[162] Even trees have more hope than men (Job. 14:7-9 reveal Near Eastern custom of cutting trees off in order to produce new life.)

[162] For this image see F. Delitzsch, Job, Vol. I, E.T., Eerdmans, p. 227.

Job. 14:8A tree may not be completely dead, but drought retards its growth. The roots are withering in the ground.

Job. 14:9But the scent of water will bring new hope for life (Psa. 92:12 f; and Pro. 14:11).

Job. 14:10There are two Hebrew roots for man in this verse, one to be strong and to be weak. (The word translated laid low in A. V. is h-l-sweakening, defeating, or helpless; the gibbor is a strong person, translated in A. V. as giveth up the ghost.) Even a strong man dies and is no more (Joe. 3:10). Job here reflects a very limited view of life after death.

Job. 14:11Though the contexts are different, the second line of this verse is identical with Isa. 19:5 b. Dhormes point is well taken regarding the word rendered sea. The Hebrew term is used in a wider sense than the sea; it can mean a lake (Isa. 19:5). The sea could not dry up; if it did it would not make any difference to the dead.[163]

[163] Dhorme, Job, p. 199.

Job. 14:12When man lies down to pleasant dreams, they shall not wake,[164] as long as the heavens do not burst.

[164] G. R. Driver, Vetus Testamentum, Supplement, III, 1960, p. 77.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

7. For Introduces another reason for the plea in Job 14:6.

Tender branch Sprout. The description from Job 14:7-9 is specially applicable to the palm-tree, which is endowed with a wonderful vitality, whence it becomes a figure for youthful vigour. The Greeks gave the same name phoenix (palm-tree) to the wondrous bird which fable represented as rising again from its own ashes. “Even when centuries have at last destroyed the palm,” says Masius, whom Delitzsch quotes, “thousands of inextricable fibres of parasites cling about the stem.” In the country east of the Jordan, the walnut-tree ceases to bear much after one hundred years, and becomes hollow and decayed. It is then cut down to within two or three yards from the ground. If the trees are well watered, new shoots spring up in a year in uncommon luxuriance, and bear fruit the second year. (Wetzstein.) “The Romans,” says Rosenmuller, “made those trees to be the symbol of death which, being cut down, do not live again, and from whose roots no germs arise, such as the pine and cypress.” The revivification of nature, in contrast to the hopeless death of man, has often inspired the muse to elegiac strains, as with the poet Moschus bewailing the death of Bion; also the poets Catullus and Horace, and even the Yajur Veda. See Wordsworth, Good, or Barnes. Compare with Job’s melancholy strains the exquisite, but quite as hopeless, lines of Beattie’s Hermit: “‘Tis night,” etc., and closing with

But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn?

O! when shall it dawn on the night of the grave?

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Job 14:7-16. For there is hope of a tree, &c. Job begins this chapter with a reflection on the shortness and wretchedness of human life, a truth which he had so sadly learned from experience. In his progress, therefore, as was natural, he seems to be casting about for arguments of support and consolation under these distressed circumstances; and particularly for proofs to confirm him in the belief of what they had received an obscure tradition of, the resurrection of mankind to another life. In Job 14:7 he touches upon that argument, from the analogy of things, which has been so often made use of in treating upon this subject: for there is hope of a tree, if be cut down, that it will sprout again: Hebrew iachalip, will yet renew itself, will revive and flourish, as the spring comes on. This description is pursued for three verses. Then, Job 14:10. But men dieth, and wasteth away; man expires, and where is he? As if he had said, “After a tree is cut down, we see, nevertheless, the old stock flourish again, and send forth new branches; and shall man, then, when he once expires, be extinct for ever: is there no hope that he shall revive, and be raised again hereafter? Yes, there is, according to the doctrine delivered to us from our ancestors: but then they inform us, at the same time, that this resurrection shall not be but with the dissolution and renovation of the world; Job 14:11-12. The waters go off from the sea, and the flood (the river) will decay, and dry up. And man lieth down and riseth not till the heavens be no more; (till then) they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.” The meaning seems to be, that as we see every thing in flux, and subject to change, so the whole shall one day be changed. The sea itself will, at length, be quite absorbed; and the running rivers, which now flow perpetually, as if supplied by everlasting springs, will, nevertheless, in time quite cease and disappear. This visible frame of things shall be dissolved, and the present heavens themselves shall be no more: and then, and not before, comes the resurrection and the general judgment. The common translation is somewhat different. Though the comparison here expressed has nothing to answer to it in the Hebrew, yet, it must be owned, the , caph of similitude, as they call it, or the particle , kemo, as, is sometimes understood; and, therefore, the passage may be so rendered, if there be occasion; and then the meaning will be, that the death of man is not like the cutting down of a tree, which soon sprouts out again, and flourishes in the same place: but rather like the drying up of a river, whose waters disappear, and we see no more of them. So man appears no more upon the stage of this world: he lieth down, and riseth not till the heavens be no more. Job proceeds: “Since, then, this is the lot of mankind, to die to all intents and purposes to the things of this world, and not to be raised again till the end of it; Job 14:13. Oh that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, (Hebrew bisheol, in sheol, the region of departed souls) that thou wouldest keep me secret till thy wrath be past: that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!” As if he had said, “Tired out with the calamities of life, let me then presently undergo this lot, which must be undergone, the effect of Adam’s sin and of thy wrath against it, till the time for us to remain in this separate state be fulfilled; and then remember me, and raise me to that better state which thou hast prepared for thy faithful servants.” And here he breaks out into an expression of joy and admiration; Job 14:14. If a man die, shall he live, or revive? Is it true that we shall rise again to a new and better life hereafter? Let me, with hope and patience, wait this happy change, how long soever it may be in coming. All the days of my appointed time (or station) will I wait, till my change (Hebrew chalpathi, my renovation) comes: It follows, Job 14:15. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee; thou wilt have a desire to the work of thy hands. What can this mean, but that God would call him forth to judgment? That he should then be admitted to answer for himself before a just and equitable Judge, who knew the uprightness of his heart, and had a love for all his creatures who did not render themselves unworthy of it; and that then he should receive another sort of sentence than that which his rash, ill-judging friends had passed upon him, and be acquitted before him and all the world? though now, as it follows in the next verse, God had seemed to deal so hardly with him, had numbered all his steps, and sealed up his transgression and iniquity, as in a bag: Job 14:16-17 that is, had seemed to take account of every the smallest transgression of his life, and, by the severe chastisements inflicted upon him, had laid him open to the bitter censures and reproaches of his three friends. For his hopes of being acquitted in the day of judgment, could not entirely allay that grief and indignation which he had conceived at the cruel usage inflicted on him by these men, who measured his guilt by his afflictions, and treated him upon this account, in all their speeches, as a wicked man and a hypocrite. The reading of the LXX, understood by way of interrogation, which is Rufinus’s conjecture, favours the sense that I have given of this passage. It is thus; for there is hope of a tree if it be cut down, that it will sprout again; but man dieth, and is he no more? intimating that it would be strange if a tree should revive after it was cut down; but that man, a creature of such excellence, should die, and there be an utter end of him. This kind of argument, I am sure, was much insisted on by the first apologists for Christianity; and while the Heathens complained in such strains as these, Soles occidere, et redire possunt, &c. “the sun sets and rises again; but for us, when our short day expires, there remains one perpetual night of sleep;” (Catull. Epig. 5:) the Christians argued, on the other hand, that, as the sun sets and rises again, the stars glide away and return, the trees grown old and dead in winter, recover life again, and bud and blossom in the spring; so, expectandum nobis etiam corporis ver est; “We too shall have our spring-time of resurrection;” Vide adeo quam in solatium nostri, resurrectionem futuram omnis natura meditatur, says Minutius Felix. And, as this reasoning is natural and obvious, as well as peculiarly calculated to shine in poetry, I see not why Job, in this noble poem, may not be allowed to reason in the same way. But, supposing the question where is he? to mean “he is gone for ever;” still this can only be understood of his returning no more to this world; for, as to the future resurrection, I must insist upon it that Job declares his hope of it very clearly in Job 14:14. All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. I know it is a common opinion, that by the change here mentioned is meant the change of death; but the sense above given suits best with the context, as also with the Hebrew word , chalipah, which properly signifies a change for the better, a renewal. Peters. Houbigant renders the beginning of the 14th verse, For, though a man die, yet he shall revive again; and therefore I will wait all the days, &c.; observing, in agreement with the ingenious Mr. Peters, that nothing can be so absurd as to suppose that the words contain any doubt of a future life, according to the common version. The learned Scheuchzer on this passage, as well as many others of this book, has entered into a variety of pleasing disquisitions in physics, which are by far too copious for our work: we beg, therefore, to refer the reader to him.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

(7) For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. (8) Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; (9) Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. (10) But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? (11) As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: (12) So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. (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! (14) If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. (15) Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

There cannot be a question, from this most beautiful and striking passage, but that Job had the clearest apprehensions of a future state. He describes the vegetable production, and, in the instance of a tree cut down, shows that there is yet a principle of life in it. And can it be supposed, (it is as if Job had said) that man, at his dropping into the grave, hath no life, nothing further? But Job riseth to an higher evidence, when he adds a prayer that he might be hid, until the indignation was over past. And then he saith, when the LORD shall call, he will answer. The LORD cannot but have a desire to his own work. These are very strong testimonies in proof of Job’s confidence in another state. But oh! how infinitely they fall short of what believers in JESUS are possessed of. Oh! thou precious LORD GOD! it is thou which hast brought life and immortality to light by thy gospel! And, Reader! let me beg of you to read what Paul the apostle delivered to the church of the Thessalonians, by way of animating their minds on this important subject: 1Th 4:13 to the end.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Job 14:7 For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

Ver. 7. For there is hope of a tree, &c. ] Here Job setteth on his request, Job 14:6 , with a reason; God loveth a reasonable service, and liketh well that we reverently reason it out with him. And for the literal sense, all things, saith Gregory, are so plain, that there is no need to say anything to that, it being no more than this; either I shall have comfort in this world before I die, or never here; therefore grant me rest now. This argument Job illustrateth, 1. By a dissimilitude, here. 2. By a similitude, Job 14:11-12 . The dissimilitude between a tree and a man is this: a tree may be hewed and felled, yet feel no pain. Again, succisa repullalat, imbribus irrigata, a tree cut down, if well watered, – will spring and sprout up again (Merlin). But now man, as he is very sensible of every stroke of God’s hand, neither can he suffer sickness or other affliction without smart, so when once cut down by death, he can by no means be recovered; he cannot revive without a miracle.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

For there is hope of a tree. This is a positive independent statement, about which there is no doubt. There should be a full stop here. Then the Hebrew accents mark off two hypotheses: (1) if it is cut down (Job 14:7) the Spring will wake its sap; (2) if waxing old (Job 14:8) it may still send forth a new growth. But there is no hope of man’s living again like a tree. If he is to “live again” he must be raised from the dead.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Job 14:7-12

MAN GIVETH UP THE GHOST; AND WHERE IS HE?

“For there is hope of a tree,

If it be cut down, that it will sprout again,

And that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

Though the root thereof wax old in the earth,

And the stock thereof die in the ground.

Yet through the scent of water it will bud,

And put forth boughs like a plant.

But man dieth, and is laid low:

Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

As the waters fail from the sea,

And the river wasteth and drieth up;

So man lieth down, and riseth not:

Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake,

Nor be raised out of their sleep.”

It is a sinful perversion of the Word of God to interpret this paragraph as a denial of the resurrection of the dead, a resurrection that Job certainly believed in, as did Abraham, the Psalmist, the prophets and many others, even in the Old Testament. What Job was saying here pertains exclusively to, “The return of men to this present life in its present form. Job was not ignorant of the resurrection hope, but a firm believer in it.” A failure to understand this results in such a comment as this, “There is hope of a tree … but for man there is none till the heavens pass away (Job 14:12), which is never, as far as Job knows.” Kelly put it this way: “Job insists, against all suppositions to the contrary, that death is the end, that Sheol, rather than life, is man’s final destiny.

We believe that such comments do an injustice to Job. The expression, till the heavens pass away, emphasizes that man’s resurrection shall not occur until indeed the heavens do pass away. This is made clear in 2Pe 3:10.

In his summary of what this paragraph teaches, Matthew Henry wrote that, “This indicates that there will be a return of man to life again in another world, at the end of the time when the heavens shall be no more.” Keil also stated that Job’s words in this paragraph. “Cannot be otherwise understood than that Sheol would be Job’s temporary hiding place from the divine wrath, instead of being his eternal abode.” To construe this passage otherwise it is necessary to ignore, or delete altogether Job 14:15, below.

“As the waters fail from the sea, and the river … drieth up” (Job 14:11). “Job had evidently seen both of these things happen. The formation of new land in the place of the sea is continually going on at the head of the Persian Gulf, through the deposits of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; and this formation was extremely rapid in ancient times, when the head of the gulf was narrower; and the drying up of river-courses is common in Mesopotamia, where arms thrown out by the rivers get blocked and become silted up.”

E.M. Zerr:

Job 14:7-9. Besides the two thoughts expressed in the preceding paragraph, very much of Job’s teaching was intended for the benefit of all mankind. This paragraph showed his belief in another life; it was expressed by a comparision to the renewal of the life of a tree through its roots even after the body had been cut down.

Job 14:10. A materialist is one who says there is no part of man that exists or is conscious after death, and that when one dies all there ever was of him goes into the grave. Such a theory is one form of infidelity and puts human beings in the same class with dumb beasts. The present verse is claimed to prove the theory because it says that man wasteth away. According to 1Th 5:23 man has three parts and the body is one of those parts; it is the part that wastes away. The question where is he shows there is something about man besides the body, for we all know where it is after death. Job did not answer the question in this place but we will have seen beyond all doubt that he believed in another life after death, before we are done with the various declarations made by him reported in this book.

Job 14:11-12. That part of man called the body will lie down in death and rise not; till the heavens be no more. The last phrase in italics clearly teaches there will be a resurrection when the time comes for the heavens to be no more. Certainly there will be no resurrection before that time comes.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

that it will sprout: Job 14:14, Job 19:10, Isa 11:1, Isa 27:6, Dan 4:15, Dan 4:23-25

Reciprocal: 2Sa 14:14 – as water Job 15:32 – and his branch Job 24:20 – wickedness Psa 88:10 – shall Ecc 9:4 – General Ecc 9:10 – for Isa 6:13 – substance Dan 11:7 – out of

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Job 14:7-10. For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down If the body of a tree be cut down, and only the stem or stump be left in the ground, yet there is hope; that it will sprout again Hebrew, , jachalip, will yet renew itself, will revive and flourish as the spring comes on. Though the root wax old Begin to wither and decay; and the stock thereof die Namely, in outward appearance; yet, through the scent of water By means of water; scent or smell being here figuratively ascribed to a tree. The moisture of the earth, and the rain of heaven, have sufficient influence upon it to revive it, and cause it to bud; and bring forth boughs like a plant As if it were a tree newly planted. But man dieth and wasteth away Man, though a far nobler creature, is in a much worse condition, as to this world, for when once he loseth his present life he never recovers it. Two words are here used for man, , geber, a mighty man: though mighty, he dies: , adam, a man of earth: being made of earth, he returns to it. He dieth and wasteth away: before death he is dying daily, continually wasting away; in death he gives up the ghost: the spirit leaves the body and returns to God, the Father of spirits, who gave it. After death, where is he? Not where he was; his place knows him no more: his body, all that is visible of him, is rotting away in the grave. But where is the thinking, intelligent principle, the self-conscious being, the proper man? Is this nowhere? Yes, it is somewhere; and it is a very awful consideration to think where they are that have given up the ghost, and where we shall be when we give it up. It is gone into the world of spirits; gone into eternity, gone to return no more to this world.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Job 14:7-12 gives the reason why God should let man have what little pleasure he can (Job 14:6): Death ends all. In Damascus it is still customary to cut down trees, the stumps of which being watered send forth new shoots. Job refers to such a practice, which shows the indomitable vitality of tree life (Job 14:7-9). But man, when he dies, knows no rejuvenation (Job 14:10 f.).

Job 14:11 may perhaps be a gloss, quoted from Isa 19:5, where both the sea and the river mean the Nile.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

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