Albert Barnes Commentary Job 14:11

"[As] the waters fail from the sea, And the river wasteth and drieth up;" — Job 14:11 (ASV)

As the waters fail from the sea - As the waters evaporate completely, and leave the bottom entirely dry, so it is with man, who passes entirely away and leaves nothing. But to what fact Job refers here is not known. The sea or ocean has never been dried up, so as to provide a basis for this comparison. Noyes renders it, “the lake.” Dr. Good, without the slightest authority, renders it, “as the billows pass away with the tides.” Herder supposes it to mean that until the waters fail from the sea man will not rise again, but the Hebrew will not bear this interpretation.

Probably the true interpretation is that which makes the word rendered sea (ים yâm) refer to a lake or a stagnant pool (see Isaiah 11:15, note; Isaiah 19:5, note). The word is often applied to a lake, as to the Lake of Genesareth (Numbers 34:11); to the Dead Sea (Genesis 14:3); as well as in Deuteronomy 4:49 and Zechariah 14:8.

It is also used to denote the Nile (Isaiah 19:5) and the Euphrates (Isaiah 27:1). It is also used to denote the brass sea that was made by Solomon and placed in front of the temple (2 Kings 25:13). I see no reason to doubt, therefore, that it may be used here to denote the collections of water, which were made by torrents pouring down from the mountains, and which would after a little while completely evaporate.

And the flood decayeth - The river - נהר nâhâr. Such an occurrence would be common in the parched countries of the East (see the notes at Job 6:15 and following). As such torrents vanish completely, so it was with man. Every vestige disappeared (compare 2 Samuel 14:14).