Job 14 · a question people ask
Did Job believe the dead would live again?
In this chapter he asks and doesn't answer. He says, "so man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep" (14:12). He asks, "If a man dies, will he live again?" (14:14), and says what he would do: "I would wait all the days of my warfare, until my release should come" (14:14), and "You would call, and I would answer you" (14:15). He ends, "So you destroy the hope of man" (14:19). Later he says, "But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth" (19:25), and "After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh" (19:26). Christians read those verses in more than one way, and chapter 19's honest question sets out the main readings, each resting on its verses. These notes don't decide ahead of it what Job believed.
The verses
“so man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.”
“If a man dies, will he live again? I would wait all the days of my warfare, until my release should come. You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire for the work of your hands.”
“The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.”
“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth. After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh,”