Job 14:7-12

Job 14:7 gives the reason why God should let man have what little pleasure he can (Job 14:6): Death ends all. In Damascus it is still customary to cut down trees, the stumps of which being watered send forth new shoots. Job refers to such a practice, which shows the indomitable vitality of tree life (Job 14:7). But man, when he dies, knows no rejuvenation (Job 14:10 f.).

Job 14:11 may perhaps be a gloss, quoted from Isaiah 19:5, where both the sea and the river mean the Nile.