Job 14
Summary for Job 14:1-2: 14:1-2 a The flower is an image of life’s brevity (Pss 90:5-6 b; 103:15-16 c; Isa 40:6-7 d).• A shadow passes swiftly (1 Chr 29:15 e; Ps 102:11 f).
14:3 g keep an eye on: Job lamented God’s relentless surveillance (7:8 h, 17-20 i; 10:6 j, 14 k; 13:27 l).
14:12 m do not rise again: Job himself did not have even the minimal evidence of resurrection found in the Old Testament (2 Kgs 13:21 n; Isa 26:19 o; Dan 12:2 p; cp. Job 19:25 q).
• Job was not focusing on the end of the universe when the heavens will be no more (Ps 102:25-26 r; Isa 34:4 s; 51:6 t; Heb 1:10-12 u) but on the eternity of the heavens (Ps 148:6 v; cp. Pss 72:5 w, 7 x, 17 y; 89:29 z, 37 aa). His phrase refers to the permanency of death.
14:13 ab Since the grave is a permanent abode (14:10-12 ac, see 3:13-19 ad; 7:6-10 ae; 10:20-22 af), Job could not even fulfill his request from 13:20-21 ag by hiding temporarily in the grave.
14:16 ah guard my steps: Here, Job refers to God’s providential care (10:12 ai) rather than to his surveillance (13:27 aj; 14:3 ak).
14:17 al If sins are sealed in a pouch they do not await a time of reckoning (Deut 32:34-35 am; Hos 13:12 an)—they are hidden forever. Job was requesting acquittal.
14:22 ao Job no longer saw Sheol as a haven (3:17-19 ap; 14:13-17 aq). The Old Testament usually depicts the dead as being without feeling (Ps 88:12 ar; Eccl 9:5 as; cp. Isa 50:11 at; 66:24 au); the doctrine that the dead suffer painfully is clearer in the New Testament (Luke 16:23 av, 28 aw; Rev 14:11 ax).
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