Albert Barnes Commentary Job 14

Man that is born of a woman - See the notes at Job 13:28. The object of Job in these verses is to show the frailty and feebleness of man. He therefore dwells on many circumstances adapted to this, and this is one of the most stirring and beautiful. He alludes to the delicacy and feebleness of the female sex, and says that the offspring of one so frail must himself be frail; the child of one so feeble must himself be feeble. Possibly also there may be an allusion here to the prevailing opinion in the East regarding the inferiority of the female sex. The following forcible lines by Lord Bacon express a similar sentiment:

The world’s a bubble, and the life of man
Less than a span,
In his conception wretched, from the womb
So to the tomb.
Cursed from the cradle, and brought up to years
With cares and fears.
Who then to frail mortality shall trust.
But draws on water, or but writes in dust.

Of few days - Hebrew “Brief of days;” compare to Psalm 90:10 and Genesis 47:9.

And full of trouble - Compare the notes at Job 3:17. Who cannot bear witness to this? How expressive a description is it of life! And even where life seems most happy, where the sun of prosperity seems to shine on our way, and where blessings like drops of dew seem to descend on us, how true is it still that life is full of trouble, and that the way of man is a weary way!

Despite all that he can do—all his care, skill, learning, and wealth—life is a weary pilgrimage and is burdened with many woes.

“Few and evil have the days of the years of my pilgrimage been,” said the patriarch Jacob, and those who have advanced near the same number of years with him can utter with deep emotion the same beautiful language.

Goethe, the celebrated German, said of himself in advanced age, “They have called me a child of fortune, nor have I any wish to complain of the course of my life. Yet it has been nothing but labor and sorrow, and I may truly say that in seventy-five years I have not had four weeks of true comfort.

It was the constant rolling of a stone that was always to be lifted anew. When I look back upon my earlier and middle life, and consider how few are left of those that were young with me, I am reminded of a summer visit to a watering-place. On arriving, one makes the acquaintance of those who have already been there some time and leave the following week. This loss is painful. Now one becomes attached to the second generation, with which one lives for a time and becomes intimately connected. But this also passes away and leaves us solitary with the third, which arrives shortly before our own departure, and with which we have no desire to have much contact.” - Rauch’s Psychology, p. 343.

And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one? - Is one so weak, so frail, so short-lived, worthy of the constant vigilance of the infinite God? In (Zechariah 12:4), the expression “to open the eyes” upon one, means to look angrily upon him. Here it means to observe or watch closely.

And bringest me into judgment with thee - Is it equal or proper that one so frail and feeble should be called to a trial with one so mighty as the infinite God? Does God seek a trial with one so much his inferior, and so unable to stand before him? This is language taken from courts of justice, and the meaning is, that the parties were wholly unequal, and that it was unworthy of God to maintain a controversy in this manner with feeble man. This is a favorite idea with Job, that there was no equality between him and God, and that the whole controversy was, therefore, conducted on his part with great disadvantage; compare the notes at (Job 9:34–35).

Who can bring a clean - thing out of an unclean? This is evidently a proverb or an adage; but its connection here is not very apparent. Probably, however, it is designed as a plea of mitigation for his conscious frailties and infirmities. He could not but admit that he had faults. But he asks, how could it be expected to be otherwise? He belonged to a race that was sinful and depraved.

Connected with such a race, how could it be otherwise than that he should be prone to evil? Why then did God follow him with so much severity and hold him with a grasp so close and so unrelenting? Why did God treat him as if he ought to be expected to be perfectly pure, or as if it were reasonable to suppose he would be otherwise than unholy? This passage is of great value as showing the early opinion of the world in regard to the native character of man. The sentiment was undoubtedly common—so common as to have passed into a proverb—that man was a sinner, and that it could not be expected that anyone of the race should be pure and holy.

The sentiment is as true as it is obvious—like will beget like all over the world. The nature of the lion, the tiger, the hyena, and the serpent is propagated, and so the same thing is true of man. It is a great law that the offspring will resemble the parentage; as the offspring of the lion is not a lamb but a young lion, and of a wolf is not a kid but a young wolf, so the offspring of man is not an angel but is a man with the same nature, the same moral character, and the same proneness to evil as the parent.

The Chaldee renders this: “Who will give one pure from a man polluted in sin, except God, who is one, and who forgiveth him?” This, however, is manifestly a departure from the sense of the passage. Jerome also has adopted nearly the same translation.

As a historical record, this passage proves that the doctrine of original sin was early held in the world. Still, it is true that the same great law prevails: that the offspring of woman is a sinner—no matter where he may be born or in what circumstances he may be placed.

No art, no philosophy, no system of religion can prevent the operation of this great law under which we live and by which we die (compare the notes at Romans 5:19).

Seeing his days - are “determined,” since man is so frail and so short-lived, let him alone, that he may pass his little time with some degree of comfort and then die. See the notes at (Job 7:19–21). The word “determined” here means “fixed, settled.” God has fixed the number of his days, so that they cannot be exceeded. Compare the notes at (Isaiah 10:23), and notes at (Psalms 90:10).

The number of his months are with you - You have the ordering of them, or they are determined by you.

You have appointed his bounds - You have fixed a limit, or have determined the time which he is to live, and he cannot go beyond it. There is no elixir of life that can prolong our days beyond that period. Soon we will come to that outer limit of life, and then we must die.

When that is, we do not know, and it is not desirable to know. It is better that it should be concealed. If we knew that it was near, it would fill us with gloom and deter us from the efforts and the plans of life altogether. If it were remote, we would be careless and secure, and would think there was time enough yet to prepare to die.

As it is, we know that the period is not very far distant; we do not know but that it may be very near at hand, and we should always be ready.