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Job 14 · a question people ask

Job says to God, "So you destroy the hope of man" (14:19). Is he right?

In the text

These are Job's words, spoken to God (14:13-22), and the book doesn't answer them here. When the LORD answers Job, he asks, "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" (38:2), and Job says, "therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand" (42:3). The LORD also says to Eliphaz that he and his two friends "have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has" (42:7). The book doesn't say which of Job's words each of these verses has in view. These notes set them side by side and don't decide.

The verses

“The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.”
Job 14:19 · World English Bible
““Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”
Job 38:2 · World English Bible
“You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.”
Job 42:3 · World English Bible
“It was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has.”
Job 42:7 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Job 14

Job 14: Hope for a tree

Job gives hope to a cut-down tree (14:7) and then says to God, "So you destroy the hope of man" (14:19): the same Hebrew word. And the release he would wait for (14:14) stands beside warfare only here and in 10:17, a word Strong's derives from the verb of the tree that "will sprout again".

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions