Job 14:20

_THOU PREVAILEST FOR EVER AGAINST HIM, AND HE PASSETH: THOU CHANGEST HIS COUNTENANCE, AND SENDEST HIM AWAY._ Prevailest - doest overpower by superior strength. PASSETH - dieth. CHANGEST COUNTENANCE - the change in the visage at death. Differently (Daniel 5:9)....

16-22 Job's faith and hope spake, and grace appeared to revive; but depravity again prevailed. He represents God as carrying matters to extremity against him. The Lord must prevail against all who contend with him. God may send disease and pain, we may lose all comfort in those near and dear to us, every hope of earthly happiness may be destroyed, but God will receive the believer into realms of eternal happiness. But what a change awaits the prosperous unbeliever! How will he answer when God shall call him to his tribunal? The Lord is yet upon a mercy-seat, ready to be gracious. Oh that sinners would be wise, that they would consider their latter end! While man's flesh is upon him, that is, the body he is so loth to lay down, it shall have pain; and while his soul is within him, that is, the spirit he is so loth to resign, it shall mourn. Dying work is hard work; dying pangs often are...

Verse Job 14:20. _THOU PREVAILEST FOR EVER AGAINST HIM_] It is impossible for him to withstand thee: every stroke of thine brings him down. _THOU CHANGEST HIS COUNTENANCE_] Probably an allusion to the custom of _covering the face_, when the person was condemned, and _sending him away_ to execution. See the case of Haman, in the note on _Esther_, Esther 7:8....

THOU PREVAILEST FOREVER AGAINST HIM - Thou dost always show that thou art stronger than he is. He never shows that he is able to contend with God. AND HE PASSETH - He cannot stand before thee, but is vanquished, and passes off the stage of being. THOU CHANGEST HIS COUNTENANCE - Possibly the allusion is to the change produced by death. The countenance that glowed with health and was flushed with beauty and hope - blooming as the rose - is made pale as the lily under the hand of God. What an affecting exhibition of the power of God! AND SENDEST HIM AWAY - This language seems to be that of expectation that man would still live though he was sent away; but all his hopes on earth were blasted, and he went away from his friends and possessions to return no more....

EXPOSITION JOB 14:1 This chapter, in which Job concludes the fourth of his addresses, is characterized by a tone of mild and gentle expostulation, which contrasts with the comparative vehemence and passion of the two preceding chapters. It would seem that the patriarch, having vented his feelings, experiences a certain relief, an interval of calm, in which, his own woes pressing less heavily upon him, he is content to moralize on the general condition of humanity. JOB 14:1 MAN THAT IS BORN OF A WOMAN. In this fact Job sees the origin of man's inherent weakness. He is "born of a woman," who is "the weaker vessel" (1 Peter 3:7). He is conceived by her in uncle

THOU PREVAILEST FOR EVER AGAINST HIM,.... God is a more than a match for man, in anything, in everything; there is no contending with him, or standing against him, he is stronger than he, and always prevails; there is no withstanding any disease, and the force of it, when he sends it; it is a messenger and servant of his, it goes at his command, and does what he bids it do; and all the art and power of man cannot resist it, or hinder what God would have done by it; and so death itself is irresistible; what is stronger than death? it is a king that reigns with a despotic power; it reigns irresistibly, victoriously, and triumphantly; it prevails over all men, in all ages, and will do to the end of the world; no man has power over his spirit to retain it one moment, when death comes to separate it from the body: and this prevalence of God by death over men will be for ever; the grave is man...

CHAPTER S 12-14 JOB'S ANSWER TO ZOPHAR _ 1. His sarcasm (Job 12:1)_ 2. He describes God's power (Job 12:7) 3. He denounces his friends (Job 13:1) 4. He appeals to God (Job 13:14) 5. The brevity and trouble of life (Job 14:1) 6. The ray of light through hope of immortality (Job 14:7) Job 12:1. He answers not only Zophar but the others as well. Before this Job had expressed his

JOB 14:16 turns to the contrast of Job's present misery and hopeless end. Now God watches Job (Job 14:16). God writes down his sins, and seals up the indictments in a bag (Job 14:17). The mountains perish and the stones are worn away: so God destroys man's hope, and the man himself (Job 14:18). He is sunk in Sheol where he neither knows nor cares for the concerns of his family (Job 14:21). Only his flesh upon him hath pain and his soul within him mourneth (Job 14:22). [The flesh suffers pain through

Job 13:22 to Job 14:22. Job pleads his cause before God Having ordered his cause and challenged his friends to observe how he will plead, Job now enters, with the boldness and proud bearing of one assured of victory, upon his plea itself. There is strictly no break between the passage which follows and the foregoing; the division is only made here for convenience" sake. It would scarcely be according to the author's intention to make Job 13:23 the plea, and assume that, as God did not answer the demand there made, Job's plea took another turn. The question whether Job actually did expect that he would be replied to out of heaven can hardly be answered. We must, however, take into account the extreme excitation of his mind, and the vividness

10. But hope is destroyed in Sheol. (Job 14:18-22) TEXT 14:18-22 18 BAT THE MOUNTAIN FALLING COMETH TO NOUGHT; And the rock is removed out of its place; 19 The waters wear the stones; The overflowings thereof wash away the dust of the earth: So thou destroyeth the hope of man. 20 Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth; Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. 21 His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; And they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them. 22 But his flesh upon him hath pain, And his soul within him mourneth. COMMENT 14:18-22 JOB 14:18How can man hope to escape destruction, since the greatest mountains can be leveled, and the deepest valleys covered over. Impermanence