Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 34:14

"If he set his heart upon himself, [If] he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath;" — Job 34:14 (ASV)

If he set his heart upon man. —Or, upon himself. It is ambiguous, and so, likewise, the next clause is. We must either regard it as the consequence of the former one—“If He set His heart upon Himself, had regard to His own interest, then He would gather to Himself His own spirit and His own breath”—or we must do as some do: supply the “if” at the beginning of it, and read it as in the Authorised Version. In this sense, the setting His heart upon man would mean in a bad sense—to do him injury.

In doing him injury, He would, in fact, injure His own. The effect of His setting His heart on man would be that all flesh would perish together and man would turn again to his dust; but then God would have injured His own, and not another’s, in so doing. It is hardly possible that the writer of this last clause could have been ignorant of Genesis 3:19. The speech of Elihu is marked with entire self-confidence.