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CHAPTER 14 Dec. 12 
Further Words from Job
Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble. 2He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue. 3Do You open your eyes on such a one, and bring me into judgment with You? 4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. 5Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with You, and You have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass; 6look away from him, that he may rest, until he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day. 7For there is hope for a tree, If it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease. 8Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in the ground, 9yet through the scent of water it will bud, and put forth boughs like a plant. 10But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he? 11As the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes and dries up, 12so man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep. 13Oh that You would hide me in Sheol, that You would keep me secret, until Your wrath is past, that You would appoint me a set time, and remember me! 14If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare would I wait, until my release should come. 15You would call, and I would answer You. You would have a desire to the work of Your hands. 16But now You number my steps. Don’t You watch over my sin? 17My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity. 18But the mountain falling comes to nothing. The rock is removed out of its place; 19the waters wear away the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So You destroy the hope of man. 20You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change his face, and send him away. 21His sons come to honour, and he doesn’t know it. They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it about them. 22But his flesh on him has pain, and his soul within him mourns. 

Commentary


14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?- Job seems to be justifying his sins by arguing that sin is inevitable because of our nature. This is just a theological form of the stubborn refusal to face up to our sinfulness as noted on 13:20-22. The Lord Jesus had our nature and yet didn’t sin; all that we say about human nature we say about Him. We aren’t inevitable sinners, victims of a human nature which wasn’t our fault as it were. See on 15:14,15.
14:12 So man lies down and doesn’t rise- Job’s faith in and desire for a future resurrection develops throughout the book; in 19:25-27 he is very clear about it and his earnest longing for it. 
14:20 The reference to change and sending away refers to Adam being sent out of Eden, or also to Cain's countenance falling and then being sent away from God. Yet in :15 Job is alluding to God’s calling to Adam in the garden; and Job is full of reasons which he will give God of his own rightness and innocence. So at this stage, Job is torn between recognizing his sinfulness and yet justifying it, perhaps only seeing it in terms of being a victim of the consequences of Adam’s sin in Eden. As the book progresses, he is brought to the total acceptance of personal sinfulness and the justness of Divine punishment which God seeks to bring us all to.