Job 14 · a question people ask
"Oh that you would hide me in Sheol" (14:13). Is Job asking to die?
Read the whole verse. Job asks God to "hide me in Sheol", to "keep me secret until your wrath is past", and to "appoint me a set time and remember me" (14:13). In the verse the hiding lasts until the wrath is past, and ends with being remembered, and Job goes on, "You would call, and I would answer you" (14:15). Earlier chapters record Job asking why he didn't die at birth (3:11, 10:18-19), asking God to cut him off (6:8-9), and saying his soul chooses death and he loathes his life (7:15-16). 14:13 is worded differently from those verses, and the book doesn't comment on any of them. These are Job's words; these notes give no verdict on them and build no teaching about death on them.
The verses
““Oh 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!”
“You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire for the work of your hands.”
““Why didn’t I die from the womb? Why didn’t I give up the spirit when my mother bore me?”
““Oh that I might have my request, that God would grant the thing that I long for, even that it would please God to crush me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!”