Attributed commentary excerpt
Barnes' Notes on Job 14:7
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Notes on the Whole Bible
Albert Barnes (1798–1870) · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
For there is hope of a tree - This passage to Job 14:12, is one of exquisite beauty. Its object is to state reasons why man should be permitted to enjoy this life. A tree, if cut down, might spring up again and flourish; but not man. He died to rise no more; he is cut down and lives not again. The passage is important as expressing the prevalent sentiment of the time in which Job lived about the future condition of man, and is one that deserves a close examination. The great question is, whether Job believed in the future state, or in the resurrection of the dead? On this question one or two things are clear at the outset. (1) He did not believe that man would spring up from the grave in any sense similar to the mode in which the sprout or germ of a tree grows up when the tree is cut down. (2) He did not believe in the doctrine of metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls; a doctrine that was so common among the ancients. In this respect the patriarchal religion stood aloof from the systems of paganism, and there is not to be found, that I know of, any expression that would lead us to suppose that they had ever embraced it, or had even heard of it. The general sentiment here is, that if a tree is cut down, it may be expected to shoot up again, and another tree will be found in its place - as is the case with the chestnut, the willow, the oak. But Job says that there was nothing like this to happen to man. There was no root, no germ, no seminal principle from which he would be made to live again on the earth. He was to be finally cut off, from all his pleasures and his friends here, and to go away to return no more. Still, that Job believed in his continued existence beyond the grave - his existence in the dark and gloomy world of shades, is apparent from the whole book, and indeed from the very passage before us; see Job 14:13 - compare Job 10:21-22. The image here is one that is very beautiful, and one that is often employed by poets. Thus, Moschus, in his third Idyl, as translated by Gisborne: The meanest herb we trample in the field, Or in the garden nurture, when its leaf At winter’s touch is blasted, and its place Forgotten, soon its vernal bud renews, And from short slumber wakes to life again. Man wakes no more! Man, valiant, glorious, wise, When death once chills him, sinks in sleep profound. A long, unconscious, never-ending sleep. See also Beattie’s Hermit: ‘Tis night, and the landscape is lovely no more; I mourn, but ye woodlands, I mourn not for you; For morn is approaching, your charms to restore, Perfumed with fresh fragrance, and glittering with dew. Nor yet for the ravage of winter I mourn; Kind nature the embryo blossom will save; But when shall spring visit the mouldering urn? O when shall it dawn on the night of the grave? The same image, also, has been beautifully employed by Dr. Dwight, though urged by him as an argument to prove the doctrine of the resurrection: In those lone, silent realms of night, Shall peace and hope no more arise? No future morning light the tomb, Nor day-star gild the darksome skies? Shall spring the faded world revive? Shall waning moons their light renew? Again shall setting suns ascend, And chase the darkness from our view? The feeling of Job here is, that when man was removed from the earth, he was removed finally; that there was no hope of his revisiting it again, and that he could not be employed in the dark abode of departed spirits in the cheerful and happy manner in which he migh…
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