Job 14:14

My appointed time— My appointed service. My station, or my warfare, as some render it: צבאי, zebaai. The word is commonly used in a military sense, either for an army, or a state of warfare; but it is likewise used in a religious sense, if I may so term it. The angels which attend the throne of God are called his צבא zaba, his host; and it is with respect to these that he is so often called the God and Lord of Hosts: צבאות zebaoth. The Levites, who attended the service of the tabernacle, are said to wait to do their office in this phrase. See Numbers 4:23. The word is used remarkably by the Prophet Isaiah 40:2 either to express the state of the Jews in the captivity of Babylon, waiting for the promised deliverance; or rather, the state of the faithful, who expected a much more glorious redemption under the Messiah: Cry unto her, that her warfare (צבא zaba,) is accomplished. If Job had the same notion of a separate state which Isaiah seems here to have, either of the captivity of the Jews, under which they were to remain for a certain season, as a state brought upon them by their sins, till the day of their deliverance came; or of the state of the faithful, waiting with hope and patience for the redemption of the Messiah; we see how aptly he uses the word צבאי zebaai. The idea which the word conveys, is that of a post or station given him by God to maintain, till released from it and called to a better state; as if he had said, "Whatever station or condition God shall please to appoint me, either here, or in sheol, the intermediate state, I shall still wait in earnest expectation of the future renovation and resurrection." Peters.