NOTES for Job 14:1-22

Job compares a human being to a flower that quickly withers, and sorrow is evident in this comparison. (It is true that we may also recall the Gospel words about the equally short-lived beauty of the lilies of the field, which serve as an argument for God’s care for people: “If God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” Matt. 6:28-30.) Job sees no way out of his situation, and this no longer concerns only his personal circumstances. Job’s troubles have sharpened his sense of the unbearable tragedy of existence, and he constantly returns to thoughts of how desirable it would be for earthly life, and with it suffering, to end. Job can think of nothing else; he is nothing but pain: his flesh upon him hurts, and his soul within him suffers.

Job does not look beyond earthly life. It seems that this is not so much because Revelation at that time had not yet addressed the nature of existence after death, but because life appears so unbearable to Job that it seems equally hopeless to him on both sides of the boundary of death.

Accepting life is inseparable from accepting the Giver of life. Yet before our eyes Job is losing his trust in Him.