Job 14:7-22 | TNotes

14:12 ^a do not rise again: Job himself did not have even the minimal evidence of resurrection found in the Old Testament (2 Kgs 13:21 ^b; Isa 26:19 ^c; Dan 12:2 ^d; cp. Job 19:25 ^e).

• Job was not focusing on the end of the universe when the heavens will be no more (Ps 102:25-26 ^f; Isa 34:4 ^g; 51:6 ^h; Heb 1:10-12 ⁱ) but on the eternity of the heavens (Ps 148:6 ^j; cp. Pss 72:5 ^k, 7 ^l, 17 ^m; 89:29 ⁿ, 37 ^o). His phrase refers to the permanency of death.
14:13 ^p Since the grave is a permanent abode (14:10-12 ^q, see 3:13-19 ^r; 7:6-10 ^s; 10:20-22 ^t), Job could not even fulfill his request from 13:20-21 ^u by hiding temporarily in the grave.
14:16 ^v guard my steps: Here, Job refers to God’s providential care (10:12 ^w) rather than to his surveillance (13:27 ^x; 14:3 ^y).
14:17 ^z If sins are sealed in a pouch they do not await a time of reckoning (Deut 32:34-35 ^aa; Hos 13:12 ^ab)—they are hidden forever. Job was requesting acquittal.
14:22 ^ac Job no longer saw Sheol as a haven (3:17-19 ^ad; 14:13-17 ^ae). The Old Testament usually depicts the dead as being without feeling (Ps 88:12 ^af; Eccl 9:5 ^ag; cp. Isa 50:11 ^ah; 66:24 ^ai); the doctrine that the dead suffer painfully is clearer in the New Testament (Luke 16:23 ^aj, 28 ^ak; Rev 14:11 ^al).