Job · 22 verses
Job 14
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
A tree gets the better prospect: cut down, it may sprout at the scent of water; a man dies, and the question is simply, “where is he?”
A short day for a short-lived creaturevv. 1–6
Job begins with man as a flower and a shadow: briefly present, then gone. His days are already measured, his months counted, and his boundary neatly set; the request is therefore modest—let him have his day, like a hired hand. The little difficulty is that the creature is unclean, while the one judging him opens His eyes to him all the same.
The tree has a futurevv. 7–17
Here the chapter produces its splendidly lopsided comparison. A tree may be cut down, grow old at the root, and die in the soil, yet water can still summon out its twigs. A man lies down and does not rise; still, Job imagines a hidden interval in Sheol, followed by a call, an answer, and the return of the work of God’s hands. Even the sins, rather conveniently, are to be sealed in a bag and covered over.
The hope is worn awayvv. 18–22
The imagined renewal gives way to mountain, rock, water, and torrent, all wearing things down with patient efficiency. So, Job says, God destroys a man’s hope, changes his countenance, and sends him away. The dead man does not know what becomes of his sons; he is left with the pain of his own body and the narrow grief of himself.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Job 14:1“Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.
Job 14:2Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
Job 14:3Do You open Your eyes to one like this? Will You bring him into judgment before You?
Job 14:4Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!
Job 14:5Since his days are determined and the number of his months is with You, and since You have set limits that he cannot exceed,
Job 14:6look away from him and let him rest, so he can enjoy his day as a hired hand.
Job 14:7For there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its tender shoots will not fail.
Job 14:8If its roots grow old in the ground and its stump dies in the soil,
Job 14:9at the scent of water it will bud and put forth twigs like a sapling.
Job 14:10But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?
Job 14:11As water disappears from the sea and a river becomes parched and dry,
Job 14:12so a man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens are no more, he will not be awakened or roused from sleep.
Job 14:13If 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!
Job 14:14When a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, until my renewal comes.
Job 14:15You will call, and I will answer; You will desire the work of Your hands.
Job 14:16For then You would count my steps, but would not keep track of my sin.
Job 14:17My transgression would be sealed in a bag, and You would cover over my iniquity.
Job 14:18But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and a rock is dislodged from its place,
Job 14:19as water wears away the stones and torrents wash away the soil, so You destroy a man’s hope.
Job 14:20You forever overpower him, and he passes on; You change his countenance and send him away.
Job 14:21If his sons receive honor, he does not know it; if they are brought low, he is unaware.
Job 14:22He feels only the pain of his own body and mourns only for himself.”
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 204 passages were voted onto 22 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 2Isaiah 40:6–8A voice says, “Cry out!” And I asked, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field.
- 21 Peter 1:24For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
- 2Job 8:9For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow.
- 2Psalms 103:15–16As for man, his days are like grass—he blooms like a flower of the field;
- 21 Chronicles 29:15For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
- 2James 4:14You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
- 2James 1:10–11But the one who is rich should exult in his low position, because he will pass away like a flower of the field.
- 7Isaiah 27:6In the days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole world with fruit.
- 2Psalms 144:4Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
- 2Psalms 102:11My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
- 7Isaiah 11:1Then a shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit.
- 5Psalms 39:4“Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is.
- 1Job 5:7Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
- 2Ecclesiastes 8:13Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.
- 2Job 9:25–26My days are swifter than a runner; they flee without seeing good.
- 2Psalms 92:12The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
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