Text -- Job 14:19 (NET)

14:19 as water wears away stones, and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy man’s hope.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Job 14:19

¹ tn Heb “the overflowings of it”; the word סְפִיחֶיהָ (sÿfikheyha) in the text is changed by just about everyone. The idea of “its overflowings” or more properly “its aftergrowths” (Lev 25:5; 2 Kgs 19:29; etc.) does not fit here at all. Budde suggested reading סְחִפָה (sÿkhifah), which is cognate to Arabic sahifeh, “torrential rain, rainstorm” – that which sweeps away” the soil. The word סָחַף (sakhaf) in Hebrew might have a wider usage than the effects of rain.

² tn Heb “[the] dust of [the] earth.”

³ sn The meaning for Job is that death shatters all of man’s hopes for the continuation of life.