Job 14:7 Commentary and Bible Study

In his estimation he does not even attain to the level of a tree. If a tree is cut off at the root and all its magnificent bows and branches fall crashing to the ground, there is yet hope of it that it will grow again. The same root is capable of sprouting fresh buds and putting up fresh shoots and recovering all that has been lost. In time it could even grow into a mighty tree again. Worse still, time may pass and it completely dries out, and to all appearances it is quite dead. Even then there can be life hidden in it. Given the right conditions it will send forth new branches and all that deadness will not matter because new life has appeared. All this is true of a tree, but man’s end is much more final, says Job. When he dies there is no possibility of recovery. The grave has never again yielded up those who have been placed in it. Death has the final victory, and even the strongest can do nothing to reverse it. Man breathes a last breath and then takes no more. Where has he gone? Where is the person that we once knew? All visible evidence of them has disappeared.Such is Job’s gloomy view and this belief seems completely incompatible with hope in an afterlife. But what does he have in mind? He is speaking about appearances, about what happens to the visible body, about what can be seen without the promise of God. This statement is not incompatible with his belief in a life in the world to come, though at this moment faith has run low in him. He admits that man from his perspective can see no evidence for the afterlife, but Job leaves it as a question (verse 14). Later he expresses a much better view on the subject.