Глава 14

End of Job's response to Zophar's speech. 1–17. Job's hope is in divine mercy, giving him the opportunity to justify himself. 18–22. Considerations that weaken it. Job 14:1. A man born of a woman is short-lived and full of sorrows: Job 14:2. like a flower, it comes out and falls; runs away like a shadow and doesn't stop. Job 14:3. And to him do You open Your eyes, and lead me to judgment with You? God is too strict towards Job (Job 13.23–36), and yet he arouses compassion and deserves mercy. The life of a man born of a weak wife (Gen. 3.16; Jer. 51.30) and therefore powerless by nature, is short-lived, like the existence of a flower (Ps. 36.2, 89.6; Is. 40.6–8), the standing of a shadow (Ps. 101.12, 143.4; Eccl. 8.13; Wis. 2.5), and sad in itself. Therefore, there is no need to carefully watch him and then punish him for the slightest offenses (“open his eyes,” v. 3; cf. Zech 12.4). Job 14:4. Who will be born clean from an unclean? None. Born from parents infected with sin (Ps 50.7), man is by nature prone to sin (Job 15.14, 25.4). He sins involuntarily (Job 15.16), and for some sins he is not at all to blame. Is it worthy to punish him for this reason? Job 14:5. If the days are determined for him, and the number of his months is with You, if You have set a limit for him that he will not cross, Job 14:6. then turn away from him: let him rest until he finishes his day as a mercenary. A person’s earthly life is the only time for enjoying the benefits of happiness (Job 7.7, 14.22), within those limits, the boundaries that are indicated to them by God (v. 5; cf. Ps. 38.5–6). And if now, by the will of the Lord, Job’s existence is coming to an end, then He must “turn away from him” (from the Hebrew “turn away his gaze”, cf. Job 7.19; Job 10.20), “until he rejoices in his day like a mercenary,” that is, he must stop punishment so that Job can experience a feeling of joy in the last minutes of his life (cf. Job 10.20–22). Job 14:7. There is hope for a tree that, even if it is cut down, it will come to life again, and branches will not stop coming out of it: Job 14:8. even if its root has become stale in the ground, and its stump has died in the dust, Job 14:9. but, as soon as it smells the water, it gives off shoots and puts out branches, as if newly planted. Job 14:10. And man dies and disintegrates; left, and where is he? Job 14:11. The waters leave the lake, and the river dries up and dries up: Job 14:12. so a man will lie down and not stand; until the end of heaven he will not awaken and rise from his sleep. Continuation of the previous thought. From the side of using life, the fate of a person is sadder than the fate of a tree. Once cut down or withered, under favorable conditions (v. 9) it continues to exist in offspring and shoots. A dead person will not return to life “until the end of heaven” (v. 12), that is, never, since the heavens are eternal (Ps 88.30, 148.6; Jer 31.35), at the end of the world they are subject to change, but not destruction (Isa 65.17, 66.22; 2 Pet 3.13). The irretrievable disappearance of a person full of life resembles the disappearance of waters without a trace (v. 11, cf. Isa. 19.5). Job 14:13. Oh, if only You would hide me in the underworld and cover me until Your anger passes, set a time for me and then remember me! The data listed by Job, with the help of which he expects to be justified before God, will, however, not be taken into account by the Last while He is in a state of anger (Job 9.13). Job will die as a sinner rejected by the Lord. Not allowing this thought earlier (Job 13.15), he cannot reconcile with it now - he expresses the desire to die only for a time while the Lord’s anger continues, under the condition of resurrecting later and returning to earth with all the signs of divine favor. Job 14:14. When a person dies, will he live again? On all the days of my appointed time, I would wait for my replacement to come. Job 14:15. You would call, and I would give You an answer, and You would show favor to the work of Your hands; Despite doubts about the fulfillment of the expressed desire ("when a man dies, will he live again?", cf. Ps 88.49), Job presents it as fulfilled and, as it were, contemplates the fact of his justification. Temporarily hidden in Sheol, he would wait for the end of his appointed stay in it, would wait for a change (“until my replacement comes”) of his condition, his attitude towards God. “God would have called, and he would have given Him an answer,” - he would have cried not with the aim of accusing, but in order to give an opportunity to justify himself (cf. Job 13.22), instead of anger he would have shown mercy. Job 14:16. for then You would number my steps and would not lie in wait for my sin; Job 14:17. my iniquity would be sealed in a scroll, and You would cover my guilt. Job would then experience complete bliss, the strength of which is clarified by contrasting his current state. “But now,” says the sufferer, according to an exact translation from the Hebrew, “You count my steps, you watch for my actions. You have sealed my crime in a bag and put a seal on my iniquity.” The counted sins of Job are “sealed in a bag” - quite well preserved for the appropriate punishment, will not be forgotten and will not remain without retribution. Job 14:18. But the mountain falls and is destroyed, and the rock comes out of its place; Job 14:19. water wears away stones; its spilling washes away the dust of the earth: so You destroy the hope of man. The desire for a temporary stay in Sheol, which constitutes the need of Job’s entire soul, is destroyed by the arguments of reason. Doubt: “When a person dies, will he live again?” (v. 14) takes the advantage. If solid objects - mountains, stones and rocks - are destroyed and do not remain unshakable, then Job’s weak hope of returning to life after a temporary stay in Sheol cannot take place. Job 14:20. You push him to the end, and he leaves; you betray his face and send him away. And indeed, the disaster created by death is eternal (“you press down... to the end” - Heb. “lanezah” - “forever”; Job 20.7). Like every person, Job will die with his face disfigured by death (“you betray his face”), leave and never return to earthly life (cf. “I will go away and never return” - Job 10.21). Job 14:21. Whether his children are honored - he does not know; whether they are humiliated - he does not notice; Job 14:22. but his flesh hurts on him, and his soul suffers in him. Death stops all communication with the earth: the deceased does not even know the fate of his loved ones (v. 21; cf. Eccl. 9.5–6); his flesh feels only what directly concerns itself, his soul cries only for itself (v. 22). You might be interested in: