Job 14
The Message
If We Die, Will We Live Again?
14 1-17 “We’re all adrift in the same boat:
too few days, too many troubles.
We spring up like wildflowers in the desert and then wilt,
transient as the shadow of a cloud.
Do you occupy your time with such fragile wisps?
Why even bother hauling me into court?
There’s nothing much to us to start with;
how do you expect us to amount to anything?
Mortals have a limited life span.
You’ve already decided how long we’ll live—
you set the boundary and no one can cross it.
So why not give us a break? Ease up!
Even ditchdiggers get occasional days off.
For a tree there is always hope.
Chop it down and it still has a chance—
its roots can put out fresh sprouts.
Even if its roots are old and gnarled,
its stump long dormant,
At the first whiff of water it comes to life,
buds and grows like a sapling.
But men and women? They die and stay dead.
They breathe their last, and that’s it.
Like lakes and rivers that have dried up,
parched reminders of what once was,
So mortals lie down and never get up,
never wake up again—never.
Why don’t you just bury me alive,
get me out of the way until your anger cools?
But don’t leave me there!
Set a date when you’ll see me again.
If we humans die, will we live again? That’s my question.
All through these difficult days I keep hoping,
waiting for the final change—for resurrection!
Homesick with longing for the creature you made,
you’ll call—and I’ll answer!
You’ll watch over every step I take,
but you won’t keep track of my missteps.
My sins will be stuffed in a sack
and thrown into the sea—sunk in deep ocean.
18-22 “Meanwhile, mountains wear down
and boulders break up,
Stones wear smooth
and soil erodes,
as you relentlessly grind down our hope.
You’re too much for us.
As always, you get the last word.
We don’t like it and our faces show it,
but you send us off anyway.
If our children do well for themselves, we never know it;
if they do badly, we’re spared the hurt.
Body and soul, that’s it for us—
a lifetime of pain, a lifetime of sorrow.”
Job 14
Revised Geneva Translation
14 “Man, who is born of woman, is of few days and full of trouble.
2 “He shoots forth as a flower and is cut down. He also vanishes as a shadow, and does not continue.
3 “Yet, You open Your Eyes upon such a one and cause me to enter into judgment with You.
4 “Who can bring a clean thing out of filthiness? There is not one.
5 “Are not his days determined, the number of his months with You? You have appointed his boundaries, which he cannot pass.
6 “Turn from him, so that he may rest, until his day is accepted as a hireling’s.
7 “For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will still sprout. And its branches will not cease.
8 “Though the root of it grows old in the earth, and its stump is dead in the ground,
9 “by the scent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant.
10 “But man is sick and dies. And man perishes. And where is he?
11 “As the waters pass from the sea, and as the flood decays and dries up,
12 “so man sleeps and does not rise. He shall not wake again, or be raised from his sleep, until the heavens are no more.
13 “Oh that You would hide me in the grave and keep me secret until Your wrath were past, would set a time for me and remember me!
14 “If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, until my relief comes.
15 “You shall call me, and I will answer You. You love the work of Your own Hands.
16 “But now, You number my steps. Do You not watch over my sins?
17 “My iniquity is sealed up in a bag. And You add to my wickedness.
18 “And surely as the mountain falls and comes to nothing, and as the rock is removed from its place,
19 “as the water breaks the stones, You overflow the things which grow in the dust of the earth. So You destroy the hope of man.
20 “You always prevail against him, so that he passes away. He changes his face when You cast him away.
21 “And he does not know if his sons shall be honorable. Nor shall he understand concerning them, whether they shall be of low degree.
22 “But while his flesh is upon him, he shall be sorrowful. And while his soul is in him, it shall mourn.”
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
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