“For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.
We have seen what Job has to say concerning life; let us now see what he has to say concerning death, which his thoughts were very much conversant with, now that he was sick and sore. It is not unseasonable, when we are in health, to think of dying; but it is an inexcusable incogitancy if, when we are already taken into the custody of...
Commenting on Job 14:7-15
For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,.... That is, if it be cut down to the root, and only the stump of the root is left in the ground, as the tree in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, Dan 4:15, yet the owner of it may entertain a hope that it is not utterly destroyed, but will bud...
Man may the more claim a peaceful life, since, when separated from it by death, he never returns to it. This does not deny a future life, but a return to the present condition of life. Job plainly hopes for a future state (Job 14:13; Job 7:2). Still, it is but vague and trembling hope, not assurance; excepting the one bright glimpse in Job 19:25.