Job 14:1-14

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Job 14:1-6

We are here led to think, I. Of the original of human life. God is indeed its great original, for he breathed into man the breath of life and in him we live; but we date it from our birth, and thence we must date both its frailty and its pollution. 1. Its frailty: Man, that is born of a woman, is therefore of few days, Job 14:1. This may refer to the first woman, who was called Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Of her, who being deceived by the tempter was first in the... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Job 14:7-15

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,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 14:1

Man that is born of a woman ,.... Man, Adam; not the first man, so called, for he was made and created out of the dust of the earth, and not born of a woman; the woman was made out of him, and not he of her; "earthly man", as Mr. Broughton translates it, as every descendant of Adam is; as is the earth, such are they that are earthy, everyone of which is born of a woman; yet not as opposed unto and distinguished from the heavenly One, or the Lord from heaven, for he also as man was made and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 14:2

He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down ,.... As the flower comes from the earth, so does man; as it comes out of the stalk, so man out of his mother's womb; as the flower flourishes for a while, and looks gay and beautiful, so man while in youth, in health and prosperity. Job, doubtless, has respect to his own case before his troubles came upon him, when he was possessed of all that substance, which made him the greatest man of the east; when his children were like olive plants... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 14:3

And dost thou open thine eyes on such an one ,.... So frail and feeble, so short lived and sorrowful, so soon and easily cut down and destroyed: and by opening of his eyes is not meant his providential care of men; whose eyes indeed are everywhere, run to and fro throughout the earth, and are careful of and provident for all sorts of men, which is very wonderful, Psalm 8:4 ; nor the displays of his special grace and favour towards his own peculiar people, on whom his eyes of love, grace,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 14:4

Who can bring a clean thing out of an clean ?.... Either produce a clean person from an unclean one: it is not to be expected that one, perfectly free from sin, should be generated by, or brought out of, one that is defiled with it; which is the case of all men; the first man, though made upright, sinned, and by sinning defiled himself, and all human nature in him: and so those that immediately descended from him were polluted likewise, and so on in all generations, every man being... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 14:5

Seeing his days are determined ,.... Or "cut out" F9 חרוצים "exacte praefiniti sunt", Tigurine version. , 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... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 14:6

Turn from him, that he may rest ,.... From this short lived afflicted man, whose days are limited, and will soon be at an end, meaning himself; not that he desires he would withdraw his gracious presence, nothing is more agreeable than this to a good man, and there is nothing he more deprecates than the withdrawing of it; besides, this was Job's case, and one part of his complaint, Job 13:24 ; nor to withhold his supporting presence, or his providential care of him, without which he could... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 14:7

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, Daniel 4:15 , yet the owner of it may entertain a hope that it is not utterly destroyed, but will bud out again; or "change" F19 יחליף "mutabit se", Drusius; "conditionem suam", Piscator. its state and condition, and become flourishing again: or "renew" F20 "Renovat... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 14:8

Though the root thereof wax old in the earth ,.... Lies long there, and is become dry, and seems to be consumed, on which account there may be the less hope of its flourishing: and the stock thereof die in the ground ; which may make it still more improbable; for this is not to be understood with some interpreters F25 So Piscator and Cocceius. of the stock or trunk of the tree cut down, and lying along on the earth, and in the dust of it; though it may be observed, that even such a... read more

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