Bible Glide

Job 14

Job 14 Summary, Context, and Full Chapter

In Job 14, Job speaks honestly about how brief and troubled human life is. He compares people to fading flowers and passing shadows, then asks whether death is the end. The chapter holds sorrow, uncertainty, and a longing for God to notice, forgive, and restore.

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What happens in Job 14?

Job begins by describing human life as short, fragile, and marked by trouble. He contrasts people with a tree, which can sprout again after being cut down, while a person who dies seems to lie beyond return. He asks for a time when God would hide him from judgment, then remembers that God knows every step. The chapter closes with Job's sober picture of death's power: hope wears away, families move on, and the dead no longer share in what happens on earth.

This chapter comes near the middle of Job's first cycle of speeches, after Job has defended his case against his friends. It continues his lament over suffering and his struggle to understand how God's justice fits with human weakness and death. Job 14 leads into the next round of dialogue, where his friends answer his words.

Themes to notice

  • Human frailtyJob describes people as short-lived, troubled, and unable to stand against death.
  • Death and hopeHe compares the seeming finality of human death with the renewed life a tree can show.
  • God's knowledgeJob assumes that God knows each life fully and longs for mercy and remembrance.

Questions for Job 14

  • How does Job use the image of a tree to contrast with human life and death?
  • What does Job seem to hope for when he asks God to remember him?
  • How does this chapter help us think about suffering, mortality, and trust in God?

Read the full text of Job 14 below, then open it in the reader to highlight, take notes, or ask follow-up Bible questions. No account is required to read.

Job 14

Job Laments the Finality of Death

1“Man, who is born of woman,

is short of days and full of trouble.

2Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away;

like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.

3Do You open Your eyes to one like this?

Will You bring him into judgment before You?

4Who can bring out clean from unclean?

No one!

5Since his days are determined

and the number of his months is with You,

and since You have set limits

that he cannot exceed,

6look away from him and let him rest,

so he can enjoy his day as a hired hand.

7For there is hope for a tree:

If it is cut down, it will sprout again,

and its tender shoots will not fail.

8If its roots grow old in the ground

and its stump dies in the soil,

9at the scent of water it will bud

and put forth twigs like a sapling.

10But a man dies and is laid low;

he breathes his last, and where is he?

11As water disappears from the sea

and a river becomes parched and dry,

12so a man lies down

and does not rise.

Until the heavens are no more,

he will not be awakened or roused from sleep.

13If only You would hide me in Sheol

and conceal me until Your anger has passed!

If only You would appoint a time for me

and then remember me!

14When a man dies, will he live again?

All the days of my hard service I will wait,

until my renewal comes.

15You will call, and I will answer;

You will desire the work of Your hands.

16For then You would count my steps,

but would not keep track of my sin.

17My transgression would be sealed in a bag,

and You would cover over my iniquity.

18But as a mountain erodes and crumbles

and a rock is dislodged from its place,

19as water wears away the stones

and torrents wash away the soil,

so You destroy a man’s hope.

20You forever overpower him, and he passes on;

You change his countenance and send him away.

21If his sons receive honor, he does not know it;

if they are brought low, he is unaware.

22He feels only the pain of his own body

and mourns only for himself.”

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