Job 14 · The Lantern

Job Laments the Finality of Death

Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

Man, who is born of a woman, "has a short life," because he has been ordered to return to the earth. With regard to the expression "full of wrath," Job thinks about that moment in which man received the order to observe the commandment but transgressed it.

Man that is born of a woman liveth a short time, and is full of many miseries. In Sacred Writ 'woman' is taken either for the sex, or else for 'frailty.' For the 'sex,' as where it is written, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the Law. But for frailty, as where it is said by the Wise Man, Better is the iniquity of a man than a woman doing well.

Since this last point is of particular value for the investigation of the truth, he insists more on clarifying this truth. What he had said about himself in particular he applies again generally to the whole human race.

He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down: he flees also as a shadow, and continues not.

And do you open your eyes upon such a one, and bring me into judgment with you?

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.

Let us be imitators also of those who in goat-skins and sheep-skins went about proclaiming the coming of Christ; I mean Elijah, Elisha, and Ezekiel among the prophets, with those others to whom a like testimony is borne [in Scripture].

You see Job taking refuge again in his nature, because it is impossible, he says, to be pure. [He implores God] not only because of our weakness or our ephemeral nature or the disheartening that fills our life, but because it is also impossible to be pure.

Who can make clean a thing conceived of unclean seed? Is it not Thou, Who only Art? He That alone is clean in Himself can cleanse the unclean thing. For man, who lives in a corruptible flesh, has the uncleannesses of temptation engrained in him, seeing that he derived them from his birth. For his very conception, for the sake of fleshly gratification, is uncleanness.

Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with you, you have appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;

Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.

Since God is with Job through the hardships he lays upon him, Job says, "Look away!" in the sense of "Bring your anger to an end!" God approaches in different ways by allowing participation and through anger. The friends had come to the conclusion that Job suffers for his sin.

Ver. 6. Turn from him a little while, that he may rest, till his longed for day come, as an hireling's. In this place, Turn from him, means, 'remove from him the force of the stroke,' for who can rest when He turns away from him, when He Himself alone is rest, and the further off a man is from Him, he is also rendered void of rest in proportion?

He also uses as a premise the expectation of the other life when he says, "Leave him a little while so that he might rest until the desired day comes like a hired man." Here it is necessary to observe that as the sun is the cause of day, so God is the author of life. When the sun leaves, the day ends and night comes.

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

Here the blessed Job assumes the role of teacher and prophet, and through the symbol of the tree coming to life again, he predicts his return to his former state. At the same time, Job prophesies that human nature in its entirety will be renewed. Giving vigorous thanks to the perfume of the baptismal waters, the human race will sprout again.

Ver. 7-10. For there is a hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will be green again; and that the tender branches thereof will sprout forth. 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 bring forth foliage as when it was planted.

After stating his opinion, Job here proceeds to make it clear. First, he shows that as things appear in this life man is in a worse condition than even those weak creatures which are renewed after their destruction. This fact is especially clear in trees. The life of the tree, like the life of a man, can fail in two ways, by violence or by nature.

Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stock die in the ground;

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

But man dies, and wastes away: yes, man breathes his last, and where is he?

As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decays and dries up:

By calling death "sleep," Job has clearly given us the hope for resurrection. However, he says, we will not awake "until heavens are no more." That is obvious, because, as Isaiah said, it is necessary that "they shall be rolled together like a scroll." It is necessary that all their powers are shaken, that the sun and the moon are obscured and that the stars, after being unsett…

Ver. 11, 12. As if the waters fail from the sea, and the river being emptied drieth up: so man lieth down, and riseth not.

Note here that what does not perish totally can be renewed, as he has already said about wood which is cut down or is old. (vv. 7-9) But the renewal of something again when nothing remains seems impossible, for example, to renew water in the sea or a river which has completely evaporated.

So man lies down, and rises not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

O that you would hide me in the grave, that you would keep me secret, until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!

The meaning is, "Oh that in the time when you were inflamed with rage against me, you would have kept me in custody in the netherworld—there, in fact, custody is not due to faults—and that you would not have forgotten me completely but would have set a time for my custody there!" Job has given us a reason for his desiring death.

Ver. 13. O that Thou wouldest defend me in hell! That before the coming of the Mediator between God and man, every person, though he might have been of a pure and approved life, descended to the prisons of hell, there can be no doubt; in that man, who fell by his own act, was unable by his own act to return to the rest of Paradise, except that He should come, Who by the mystery…

After Job has shown what one can conclude about the resurrection of man from things which are apparent to the senses, he posits here his own opinion about the resurrection. It would be a horrendous and unhappy thing if man should so depart after death that he would never be brought back to life. This is because everything naturally desires its own existence.

If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

You shall call, and I will answer you: you will have a desire to the work of your hands.

Since Job wants to show that not only the body is resurrected but also the soul whose thoughts are fixed on God, he says, "You would call, and I would answer you." For listening when God calls is a quality of a creature endowed with reason, that is, the soul.

Ver. 15. Thou shalt call me, and I will answer Thee. We are said to answer anyone, when we do works in turn answerable to his deeds. Thus in that change the Lord 'calls,' and man 'answers,' in that, before the brightness of The Incorrupt, man is shewn forth incorrupt after corruption.

He excludes man being transformed in the state of the other life by natural power saying, "You will call me and I will answer you," as if to say: The future transformation will proceed from the power of your voice or your command, as John says, "All those who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear it will live." (5:28) Calling is characteristi…

For now you number my steps: do you not watch over my sin?

My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and you sew up my iniquity.

And surely the mountain falling comes to nothing, and the rock is removed out of his place.

The waters wear the stones: you wash away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and you destroy the hope of man.

You prevail for ever against him, and he passes: you change his countenance, and send him away.

"A person is punished," Job says, "and, even if he has many descendents, he does not know them. In fact, after his death, he is often deprived of the pleasures that he was accustomed to enjoy while alive. What is the pleasure of leaving children after one who has departed?" You see, everywhere Job emphasizes the ephemeral character of life.

Ver. 20. Thou hast strengthened him for a little space, that he might pass by for ever. LITERAL INTERPRETATION Man has been 'strengthened here for a little space,' in that he has received here powers of living for a while, that he should for ever pass away thither, where no end should bound and shut in his life, but in this moment's space where he has been 'strengthened,' he ex…

He then deduces the same things using reasons drawn from the properties of man. Man excels all lower creatures in two ways. One of these is operative power. For he truly is the lord of his own act by free will, which is proper to no other corporeal creature. Because of this, man is more powerful that every other corporeal creature.

His sons come to honor, and he knows it not; and they are brought low, but he perceives it not of them.

But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.

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Job Laments the Finality of Death