Job 14:11
in Job 14As water disappears from the sea and a river becomes parched and dry,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
As the waters fail from the sea, And the river wasteth and drieth up;
KJV
As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:
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This verse in Job 14
Commentary
11 notes on this verseAs the waters fail from the sea,.... the words may be rendered either without the as, and denote dissimilitude, and the sense be, that the waters go from the sea and return again, as with the tide: and the flood decays and dries up; and yet is supplied again with water: "but man lieth down, and riseth not again", Job 14:12; or else with the as, and express likeness; as the waters when they fail from the sea, or get out of lakes, and into another channel, never return more; and as a flood, occasioned by the waters of a river overflowing its banks, never return into it more; so man, when he dies, never returns to this world any more.
This site's exposition
But a man dies and is laid low
on Job 14:10-12
"But a man dies and is laid low" answers the tree directly, and "where is he?" presses a question the plant never faces, since no scent of water calls a dead man back. The words "so a man lies down and does not rise" carry the comparison past sleep.
This site's exposition
As water disappears from the sea
Barnes reads the picture as water that dries up and leaves the bed bare, as a man passes away and leaves nothing. Clarke takes it of water drawn up from the sea and a river parched in the desert sand. The tree had hope; the dry river has none.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
By calling death "sleep," Job has clearly given us the hope for resurrection. However, he says, we will not awake "until heavens are no more." That is obvious, because, as Isaiah said, it is necessary that "they shall be rolled together like a scroll." It …
The Medieval Church2 voices
Note here that what does not perish totally can be renewed, as he has already said about wood which is cut down or is old. (vv. 7-9) But the renewal of something again when nothing remains seems impossible, for example, to renew water in the …
Ver. 11, 12. As if the waters fail from the sea, and the river being emptied drieth up: so man lieth down, and riseth not. The mind of man is the sea, and the thoughts of his mind, as it were, a wave of the sea; which sometimes swell in anger, are made calm by grace, and from hatred run out in bitterness; but when man dieth, 'the waters of the sea fail,' in that according to the words of the Psalmist, In that very day his thoughts perish.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
The waters of life are soon exhaled and disappear. The body, like some of those waters, sinks and soaks into the earth, and is buried there; the soul, like others of them, is drawn upwards, to mingle with the waters above the firmament.
Or thus, as when the waters fail from the sea, when the sea forsakes the place into which it used to flow, the river which was fed by it, decayeth and drieth up without all hopes of recovery.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
As the waters fail from the sea - As the waters evaporate wholly, and leave the bottom wholly dry, so it is with man, who passes entirely away, and leaves nothing. But to what fact Job refers here, is not known. The sea or ocean has never been dried up, so as to furnish a ground for this comparison.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
sea--that is, a lake, or pool formed from the outspreading of a river. Job lived near the Euphrates: and "sea" is applied to it (Jer 51:36; So of the Nile (Isa 19:5). fail--utterly disappeared by drying up.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase+unbalanced-parens
The waters fail from the sea - I believe this refers to evaporation, and nothing else. As the waters are evaporated from the sea, and the river in passing over the sandy desert is partly exsiccated, and partly absorbed; and yet the waters of the sea are not exhausted, as these vapors, being condensed, fall down in rain, and by means of rivers return again into the sea: so man is imperceptibly removed from his fellows by death and dissolution; yet the human race is still continued, the population of the earth being kept up by perpetual generations.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
As the waters fail from the sea From the place whence the river comes and emerges, from its source that comes to it from the sea.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אָֽזְלוּ־ | ʾazelu- | they disappear | H235 → | |
| מַ֭יִם | mayim | waters | H4325 → | 581 times |
| מִנִּי־ | mini- | from | H4480 → | 1188 times |
| יָ֑ם | yam | [the] sea | H3220 → | 396 times |
| וְ֝נָהָ֗ר | venahar | and a river | H5104 → | 119 times |
| יֶחֱרַ֥ב | yecherav | it dries up | H2717 → | |
| וְיָבֵֽשׁ׃ | veyavesh | and it is dry | H3001 → | 59 times |
אָֽזְלוּ־they disappear
ʾazelu-H235 →
מַ֭יִםwaters
mayimH4325 →581 times
מִנִּי־from
mini-H4480 →1188 times
יָ֑ם[the] sea
yamH3220 →396 times
וְ֝נָהָ֗רand a river
venaharH5104 →119 times
יֶחֱרַ֥בit dries up
yecheravH2717 →
וְיָבֵֽשׁ׃and it is dry
veyaveshH3001 →59 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 15:18Why is my pain unending, and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? You have indeed become like a mirage to me—water that is not there.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 30:15
Why do you cry out over your wound? Your pain has no cure! Because of your great iniquity and your numerous sins I have done these things to you.
- Job 34:6
Would I lie about my case? My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’
- Micah 1:9
For her wound is incurable; it has reached even Judah; it has approached the gate of my people, as far as Jerusalem itself.
- Jeremiah 14:19
Have You rejected Judah completely? Do You despise Zion? Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing? We hoped for peace, but no good has come, and for the time of…
- Job 6:15–20
But my brothers are as faithless as wadis, as seasonal streams that overflow,
- Jeremiah 30:15
Through
Isaiah 19:5The waters of the Nile will dry up, and the riverbed will be parched and empty.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 51:36
Therefore this is what the LORD says: “Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance on your behalf; I will dry up her sea and make her springs run dry.
- Ezekiel 30:12
I will make the streams dry up and sell the land to the wicked. By the hands of foreigners I will bring desolation upon the land and everything in it. I, the LORD, have…
- Zechariah 10:11
They will pass through the sea of distress and strike the waves of the sea; all the depths of the Nile will dry up. The pride of Assyria will be brought down, and the…
- Jeremiah 51:36
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XII; Hesychius of Jerusalem, HOMILIES ON JOB 17.14.12; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.