1 “Life is short and full of trouble, 2 like a flower that blooms and withers, like a passing shadow that soon disappears. 3 Do you even notice me, God, and why do you have to drag me to court? 4 Who can bring something clean of what is unclean? No one. 5 You have determined how long we shall live—the number of months, a time limit on our lives. 6 So leave us alone and give us some peace—so like a laborer we could enjoy a few hours of rest at the end of the day. 7 Even a tree that's cut down has the hope of sprouting again, of sending up shoots and continuing to live. 8 Even though its roots grow old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground, 9 just a trickle of water will make it bud and grow branches like a young plant. 10 But human beings die, their strength dwindles away; they perish, and where are they then? 11 Like water evaporating from a lake and a river that dries up and disappears, 12 so human beings lie down and don't get up again. Until the heavens cease to exist they will not awake from their sleep. 13 I wish you would hide me in Sheol; conceal me there until your anger is gone. Set a definite time for me there, and remember me! 14 Will the dead live again? Then I would have hope through all my time of trouble until my release comes. 15 You would call and I would answer you; you would long for me, the being that you made. 16 Then you would look after me and wouldn't be watching me to see if I sinned. 17 My sins would be sealed up in a bag and you would cover my guilt. 18 But just as the mountains crumble and fall, and the rocks tumble down; 19 as water wears away the stones, as floods wash away the soil, so you destroy the hope people have. 20 You continually overpower them and they pass away; you distort their faces in death and send them away. 21 Their children may become important or fall from their positions, but they don't know or see any of this. 22 As people die they only know their own pain and are sad for themselves.”
Job 14 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (22)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Job 5:7; Job 25:4; Ecclesiastes 2:23; Job 7:1; Matthew 11:11
- 2 Isaiah 40:6–8; 1 Peter 1:24; Job 8:9; Psalm 103:15–16; 1 Chronicles 29:15
- 3 Psalm 144:3; Psalm 143:2; Psalm 8:4; Job 13:27; Job 13:25
- 4 John 3:6; Job 15:14; Ephesians 2:3; Romans 8:8–9; Job 25:4–6
- 5 Psalm 39:4; Acts 17:26; Job 12:10; Hebrews 9:27; Psalm 104:29
- 6 Job 7:19; Psalm 39:13; Job 7:1–2; Job 10:20; Job 7:16
- 7 Isaiah 27:6; Isaiah 11:1; Job 14:14; Daniel 4:23–25; Job 19:10
- 8 1 Corinthians 15:36; John 12:24; Isaiah 26:19
- 9 Romans 11:17–24; Ezekiel 17:22–24; Ezekiel 17:3–10; Ezekiel 19:10
- 10 Job 19:26; Job 7:7–10; Genesis 49:33; Proverbs 14:32; Luke 16:22–23
- 11 Isaiah 19:5; Jeremiah 15:18; Job 6:15–18
- 12 Job 10:21–22; Isaiah 26:19; Ecclesiastes 3:19–21; Job 3:13; 2 Peter 3:10–13
- 13 Isaiah 57:1–2; Isaiah 26:20–21; Mark 13:32; Job 3:17–19; Isaiah 12:1
- 14 1 Corinthians 15:51–52; Acts 26:8; Psalm 27:14; Job 7:1; Job 13:15
- 15 Job 13:22; Psalm 138:8; Job 7:21; Job 10:3; Job 10:8
- 16 Job 10:6; Job 31:4; Psalm 139:1–4; Job 34:21; Proverbs 5:21
- 17 Deuteronomy 32:34; Hosea 13:12; Job 21:19
- 18 Revelation 6:14; Job 18:4; Jeremiah 4:24; Psalm 102:25–26; Isaiah 54:10
- 19 Job 7:6; Job 19:10; Job 27:8; Luke 12:19–20; Genesis 6:17
- 20 Job 2:12; Job 14:14; Ecclesiastes 8:8; Lamentations 4:8
- 21 Ecclesiastes 9:5; Ecclesiastes 2:18–19; Isaiah 63:16; Isaiah 39:7–8; Psalm 39:6
- 22 Job 19:26; Job 33:19–21; Proverbs 14:32; Job 19:22; Job 19:20
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
For it comes from the righteous anger of God, whereof the Scriptures say, "Man, that is born of woman, is of few days and full of anger:" for the anger of God is not like that of man, the disturbance of an excited man, but the calm fixing of righteous punishment.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888)
Again, the rod of Aaron, though cut off and dead, budded, without the scent of waters, and though under a roof, sprouted forth into blossoms as in the fields; and though set in dry places, yielded in one night the flowers and fruit of plants watered for many years.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
he says, For if a man die, he shall live again; and immediately he adds, I will wait till I be made again; and again elsewhere, Who shall raise up on the earth my skin, which endures these things.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)