Job 14:2 - Exposition

He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down . Few similes are more frequently used in Scripture (comp. Psalms 103:15 ; Isaiah 28:1 , Isaiah 28:4 ; Isaiah 40:6 , Isaiah 40:7 ; James 1:10 , James 1:11 ; 1 Peter 1:24 ), and certainly none could have more poetic beauty. Eastern flowers do not often last much more than a day. He fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not (comp. Job 7:2 ; Job 8:9 ; 1 Chronicles 29:15 ; Psalms 102:11 ; Psalms 109:23 ; Ecclesiastes 6:12 , etc.). Shadows are always changing; but the shadows which flee away the fastest, and which Job has probably in his mind, are those of clouds, or other moving objects, which seem to chase each other over the earth, and never to continue for a single minute in one stay.