Job 14:5

14:5 Since man’s days ¹  are determined, ² 

the number of his months is under your control; ³ 

you have set his limit ⁴  and he cannot pass it.

Job 14:13-14

The Possibility of Another Life

14:13 “O that ⁵  you would hide me in Sheol, ⁶ 

and conceal me till your anger has passed! ⁷ 

O that you would set me a time ⁸ 

and then remember me! ⁹ 

14:14 If a man dies, will he live again? ¹⁰ 

All the days of my hard service ¹¹  I will wait ¹² 

until my release comes. ¹³ 

Psalms 39:4

39:4 “O Lord, help me understand my mortality

and the brevity of life! ¹⁴ 

Let me realize how quickly my life will pass! ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 38:5

38:5 “Go and tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor ¹⁶  David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will add fifteen years to your life,

John 11:9-10

11:9 Jesus replied, ¹⁷  “Are there not twelve hours in a day? If anyone walks around in the daytime, he does not stumble, ¹⁸  because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁹  11:10 But if anyone walks around at night, ²⁰  he stumbles, ²¹  because the light is not in him.”

[14:5]  ¹ tn Heb “his days.”

[14:5]  ² tn The passive participle is from חָרַץ (kharats), which means “determined.” The word literally means “cut” (Lev 22:22, “mutilated”). E. Dhorme, (Job, 197) takes it to mean “engraved” as on stone; from a custom of inscribing decrees on tablets of stone he derives the meaning here of “decreed.” This, he argues, is parallel to the way חָקַק (khaqaq, “engrave”) is used. The word חֹק (khoq) is an “ordinance” or “statute”; the idea is connected to the verb “to engrave.” The LXX has “if his life should be but one day on the earth, and his months are numbered by him, you have appointed him for a time and he shall by no means exceed it.”

[14:5]  ³ tn Heb “[is] with you.” This clearly means under God’s control.

[14:5]  ⁴ tn The word חֹק (khoq) has the meanings of “decree, decision, and limit” (cf. Job 28:26; 38:10).

[14:13]  ⁵ tn The optative mood is introduced here again with מִי יִתֵּן (mi yitten), literally, “who will give?”

[14:13]  ⁶ sn Sheol in the Bible refers to the place where the dead go. But it can have different categories of meaning: death in general, the grave, or the realm of the departed spirits [hell]. A. Heidel shows that in the Bible when hell is in view the righteous are not there – it is the realm of the departed spirits of the wicked. When the righteous go to Sheol, the meaning is usually the grave or death. See chapter 3 in A. Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic and the Old Testament Parallels.

[14:13]  ⁷ tn The construction used here is the preposition followed by the infinitive construct followed by the subjective genitive, forming an adverbial clause of time.

[14:13]  ⁸ tn This is the same word used in v. 5 for “limit.”

[14:13]  ⁹ tn The verb זָכַר (zakhar) means more than simply “to remember.” In many cases, including this one, it means “to act on what is remembered,” i.e., deliver or rescue (see Gen 8:1, “and God remembered Noah”). In this sense, a prayer “remember me” is a prayer for God to act upon his covenant promises.

[14:14]  ¹⁰ tc The LXX removes the interrogative and makes the statement affirmative, i.e., that man will live again. This reading is taken by D. H. Gard (“The Concept of the Future Life according to the Greek Translator of the Book of Job,” JBL 73 [1954]: 137-38). D. J. A. Clines follows this, putting both of the expressions in the wish clause: “if a man dies and could live again…” (Job [WBC], 332). If that is the way it is translated, then the verbs in the second half of the verse and in the next verse would all be part of the apodosis, and should be translated “would.” The interpretation would not greatly differ; it would be saying that if there was life after death, Job would long for his release – his death. If the traditional view is taken and the question was raised whether there was life after death (the implication of the question being that there is), then Job would still be longing for his death. The point the line is making is that if there is life after death, that would be all the more reason for Job to eagerly expect, to hope for, his death.

[14:14]  ¹¹ tn See Job 7:1.

[14:14]  ¹² tn The verb אֲיַחֵל (’ayakhel) may be rendered “I will/would wait” or “I will/would hope.” The word describes eager expectation and longing hope.

[14:14]  ¹³ tn The construction is the same as that found in the last verse: a temporal preposition עַד (’ad) followed by the infinitive construct followed by the subjective genitive “release/relief.” Due, in part, to the same verb (חָלַף, khalaf) having the meaning “sprout again” in v. 7, some take “renewal” as the meaning here (J. E. Hartley, Alden, NIV, ESV).

[39:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Cause me to know, O Lord, my end; and the measure of my days, what it is!”

[39:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Let me know how transient I am!”

[38:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “father” (so KJV, NAB, NIV).

[11:9]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “Jesus answered.”

[11:9]  ¹⁸ tn Or “he does not trip.”

[11:9]  ¹⁹ sn What is the light of this world? On one level, of course, it refers to the sun, but the reader of John’s Gospel would recall 8:12 and understand Jesus’ symbolic reference to himself as the light of the world. There is only a limited time left (Are there not twelve hours in a day?) until the Light will be withdrawn (until Jesus returns to the Father) and the one who walks around in the dark will trip and fall (compare the departure of Judas by night in 13:30).

[11:10]  ²⁰ tn Grk “in the night.”

[11:10]  ²¹ tn Or “he trips.”