5 If determined are his days, The number of his months `are' with Thee, His limit Thou hast made, And he passeth not over;
`Cause me to know, O Jehovah, mine end, And the measure of my days -- what it `is',' I know how frail I `am'.
For what `is' his delight in his house after him, And the number of his months cut off?
`Seventy weeks are determined for thy people, and for thy holy city, to shut up the transgression, and to seal up sins, and to cover iniquity, and to bring in righteousness age-during, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies.
`And to the messenger of the assembly in Philadelphia write: These things saith he who is holy, he who is true, he who is having the key of David, he who is opening and no one doth shut, and he shutteth and no one doth open!
and as it is laid up to men once to die, and after this -- judgment,
`And God said to him, Unthinking one! this night thy soul they shall require from thee, and what things thou didst prepare -- to whom shall they be?
`And the king hath done according to his will, and exalteth himself, and magnifieth himself against every god, and against the God of gods he speaketh wonderful things, and hath prospered till the indignation hath been completed, for that which is determined hath been done.
Is there not a warfare to man on earth? And as the days of an hireling his days?
In that night Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans is slain,
and all who are dwelling on the earth as nothing are reckoned, and according to his will He is doing among the forces of the heavens and those dwelling on the earth, and there is none that doth clap with his hand, and saith to Him, What hast Thou done?
Thou hidest Thy face -- they are troubled, Thou gatherest their spirit -- they expire, And unto their dust they turn back.
And He `is' in one `mind', And who doth turn Him back? And His soul hath desired -- and He doth `it'. For He doth complete my portion, And many such things `are' with Him.
If a man dieth -- doth he revive? All days of my warfare I wait, till my change come.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 14
Commentary on Job 14 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 14
Job had turned from speaking to his friends, finding it to no purpose to reason with them, and here he goes on to speak to God and himself. He had reminded his friends of their frailty and mortality (ch. 13:12); here he reminds himself of his own, and pleads it with God for some mitigation of his miseries. We have here an account,
This chapter is proper for funeral solemnities; and serious meditations on it will help us both to get good by the death of others and to get ready for our own.
Job 14:1-6
We are here led to think,
Job 14:7-15
We have seen what Job has to say concerning life; let us now see what he has to say concerning death, which his thoughts were very much conversant with, now that he was sick and sore. It is not unseasonable, when we are in health, to think of dying; but it is an inexcusable incogitancy if, when we are already taken into the custody of death's messengers, we look upon it as a thing at a distance. Job had already shown that death will come, and that its hour is already fixed. Now here he shows,
Job 14:16-22
Job here returns to his complaints; and, though he is not without hope of future bliss, he finds it very hard to get over his present grievances.