Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 14:9

[Yet] through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.

9. like a plant ] i. e. a fresh and new plant; it begins a new life again.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Yet through the scent of water – The word here rendered scent ( reyach) means properly the odor or fragrance which anything exhales or emits; Son 2:13; Son 7:13; Gen 27:27. The idea is very delicate and poetic. It is designed to denote a gentle and pleasant contact – not a rush of water – by which the tree is made to live. It inhales, so to speak, the vital influence from the water – as we are refreshed and revived by grateful odorifles when we are ready to faint.

It will bud – Or, rather, it will germinate, or spring up again – yaparach; see the notes at Isa 55:10.

And bring forth boughs – qatsyr. This word usually means a harvest; Gen 8:22; Gen 30:14; Gen 45:6. It also means, as here, a bough, or branch; compare Psa 80:11; Job 18:16; Job 29:19.

Like a plant – Like a young plant – as fresh and vigorous as a plant that is set out.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 9. Through the scent of water it will bud] A fine metaphor: the water acts upon the decaying and perishing tree, as strong and powerful odours from musk, otto of roses, ammonia, &c., act on a fainting or swooning person.

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

Through the scent of water, i.e. by means of water. Scent or smell is figuratively ascribed to a tree.

Like a plant; like a tree newly planted.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

9. scentexhalation, which,rather than the humidity of water, causes the tree to germinate. Inthe antithesis to man the tree is personified, andvolition is poetically ascribed to it.

like a plant“asif newly planted” [UMBREIT];not as if trees and plants were a different species.

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

[Yet] through the scent of water it will bud,…. As soon as it smells it, or perceives it, is sensible of it, or partakes of its efficacy; denoting both how speedily, and how easily, at once as it were, it buds forth through the virtue either of rain water that descends upon it, or river water by which it is planted, or by any means conveyed unto it; particularly this is true of the willow, which delights in watery places; and, when it is in the circumstances before described, will by the benefit of water bud out again, even when its stock has been seemingly dead:

and bring forth boughs like a plant; as if it was a new plant, or just planted; so the Vulgate Latin version, as “when it was first planted”; or as a plant that sends forth many branches: the design of this simile is to show that man’s case is worse than that of trees, which when cut down sprout out again, and are in the place where they were before; but man, when he is cut down by death, rises up no more in the same place; he is seen no more in it, and the place that knew him knows him no more; where he falls he lies until the general resurrection; he rises not before without a miracle, and such instances are very rare, and never either before or at the resurrection, but by the omnipotence of God; whereas a tree, in the above circumstances, sprouts out of itself, according to its nature, and in virtue of a natural power which God has put into it; not so man y.

y “Mutat terra vices—–nos ubi decidimus”, Horat. Carmin. l. 4. Ode 7.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

9. The scent of water In Jdg 16:9 a thread of tow is represented as smelling the fire (margin); the verb corresponding to the noun of our text. Dan 3:27. Wherever the palm-tree grows, though in the midst of a desert, the traveller may be justified in digging for water. Such was the opinion of Sir Sydney Smith.

Like a plant “As if newly planted.” Septuagint.

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