Job 14:9
in Job 14at the scent of water it will bud and put forth twigs like a sapling.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Yet through the scent of water it will bud, And put forth boughs like a plant.
KJV
Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.
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This verse in Job 14
Commentary
10 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Yet through the scent of water - The word here rendered “scent” (ריח rêyach) means properly the odor or fragrance which anything exhales or emits; Son 2:13; Son 7:13; Gen 27:27. The idea is very delicate and poetic. It is designed to denote a gentle and pleasant contact - not a rush of water - by which the tree is made to live. It inhales, so to speak, the vital influence from the water - as we are refreshed and revived by grateful odorifles when we are ready to faint.
This site's exposition
there is hope for a tree
on Job 14:7-9
The words "there is hope for a tree" open the chapter's central contrast, a felled tree that buds again "at the scent of water". The line "its tender shoots will not fail" names a persistence in a plant the chapter is about to deny a man.
This site's exposition
at the scent of water it will bud
Barnes calls the picture delicate: the Hebrew word for scent means the fragrance a thing gives off, a touch of water that wakes the root. Clarke likens it to strong scents that revive a fainting man. The old stump puts forth twigs like a sapling.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church3 voices
Ver. 8, 9. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the dust; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth leaves as when it was first planted. What is 'the root' of the righteous, but holy preaching, since it is that he springs out of, and that he holds on in? and what is meant by the name of 'the earth' or of 'dust,' but the sinner? to whom it is said by the voice of the Creator, Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return.
Ver. 7-10. For there is a hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will be green again; and that the tender branches thereof will sprout forth. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth foliage as when it was planted. But man, when he is dead, and stripped, and consumed, where is he?
After stating his opinion, Job here proceeds to make it clear. First, he shows that as things appear in this life man is in a worse condition than even those weak creatures which are renewed after their destruction. This fact is especially clear in trees. …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
The animal life, in some insects and fowls, is so: the heat of the sun retrieves it. But the rational soul, when once retired, is too great, too noble, a thing to be recalled by any of the powers of nature; it is out of the reach of sun or rain, and cannot be restored but by the immediate operations of Omnipotence itself; for (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Yet through the scent of water it will bud,....
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
scent--exhalation, which, rather than the humidity of water, causes the tree to germinate. In the antithesis to man the tree is personified, and volition is poetically ascribed to it. like a plant--"as if newly planted" [UMBREIT]; not as if trees and plants were a different species.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
Through the scent of water it will bud - A fine metaphor: the water acts upon the decaying and perishing tree, as strong and powerful odors from musk, otto of roses, ammonia, etc., act on a fainting or swooning person.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מֵרֵ֣יחַ | mereiach | from [the] scent of | H7381 → | |
| מַ֣יִם | mayim | water | H4325 → | 581 times |
| יַפְרִ֑חַ | yafriach | it will show buds | H6524 → | |
| וְעָשָׂ֖ה | veasah | and it will produce | H6213 → | 2628 times |
| קָצִ֣יר | katzir | shoot[s] | H7105 → | 54 times |
| כְּמוֹ־ | kemov- | like | H3644 → | 143 times |
| נָֽטַע׃ | nata' | a plant | H5194 → |
מֵרֵ֣יחַfrom [the] scent of
mereiachH7381 →
מַ֣יִםwater
mayimH4325 →581 times
יַפְרִ֑חַit will show buds
yafriachH6524 →
וְעָשָׂ֖הand it will produce
veasahH6213 →2628 times
קָצִ֣ירshoot[s]
katzirH7105 →54 times
כְּמוֹ־like
kemov-H3644 →143 times
נָֽטַע׃a plant
nata'H5194 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 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
Ezekiel 19:10Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard, planted by the water; it was fruitful and full of branches because of the abundant waters.
it leads to
- Psalms 80:8–11
You uprooted a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and transplanted it.
- Deuteronomy 8:7
For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and fountains and springs that flow through the valleys and hills;
- Numbers 24:6–7
They spread out like palm groves, like gardens beside a stream, like aloes the LORD has planted, like cedars beside the waters.
- Matthew 21:33–41
Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some…
- Deuteronomy 8:9
a land where you will eat food without scarcity, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and whose hills are ready to be mined for copper.
- Psalms 80:8–11
About Job
This page draws on 9 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 (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XII; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.