Job 14:15

Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Job 14:15. Thou shalt call and I will answer thee — 1st, At death, thou shalt call my body to the grave and my soul to thyself, and I will cheerfully answer, Here I am. Gracious souls readily answer death’s summons, and appear to his writ. Their spirits are not forcibly required of them, as was that of the rich man, Luke 12:20, but willingly resigned by them, and the earthly tabernacle not violently pulled down, but voluntarily laid down. 2d, At the resurrection thou shalt call me out of the grave by the voice of the archangel, and I will answer and come at thy call. For thou wilt have a desire to the work of thy hands — A love for the soul, which thou hast made, and new-made by thy grace; and for the body, which is also the work of thy hands, and to which thou wilt have a desire, having prepared glory for it in a world of glory.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

14:7-15 Though a tree is cut down, yet, in a moist situation, shoots come forth, and grow up as a newly planted tree. But when man is cut off by death, he is for ever removed from his place in this world. The life of man may fitly be compared to the waters of a land flood, which spread far, but soon dry up. All Job's expressions here show his belief in the great doctrine of the resurrection. Job's friends proving miserable comforters, he pleases himself with the expectation of a change. If our sins are forgiven, and our hearts renewed to holiness, heaven will be the rest of our souls, while our bodies are hidden in the grave from the malice of our enemies, feeling no more pain from our corruptions, or our corrections.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee - This is language taken from courts of justice. It refers, probably, not to a future time, but to the present. "Call thou now, and I will respond." It expresses a desire to come at once to trial; to have the matter adjusted before he should leave the world. He could not bear the idea of going out of the world under the imputations which were lying on him, and he asked for an opportunity to vindicate himself before his Maker; compare the notes at Job 9:16.

Thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands - To me, one of thy creatures. This should, with more propriety, be rendered in the imperative, "do thou have a desire." It is the expression of an earnest wish that God would show an interest in him as one of his creatures, and would bring the matter to a speedy issue. The word here rendered, "have a desire" (תכסף tı̂kâsaph), means literally to be or become "pale" (from כסף keseph), "silver," so called from its paleness, like the Greek ἄργυρος arguros from ἀγρός agros, white); and then the verb means to pine or long after anything, so as to become pale.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15. namely, at the resurrection (Joh 5:28; Ps 17:15).

have a desire to—literally, "become pale with anxious desire:" the same word is translated "sore longedst after" (Ge 31:30; Ps 84:2), implying the utter unlikelihood that God would leave in oblivion the "creature of His own hands so fearfully and wonderfully made." It is objected that if Job knew of a future retribution, he would make it the leading topic in solving the problem of the permitted afflictions of the righteous. But, (1) He did not intend to exceed the limits of what was clearly revealed; the doctrine was then in a vague form only; (2) The doctrine of God's moral government in this life, even independently of the future, needed vindication.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I trust there is a time coming when thou wilt grant me the mercy which now thou deniest me, to wit, a favourable hearing, when thou wilt call to me to speak for myself, and I shall answer thee; which I know will be to thy satisfaction and my comfort. Compare this with Job 13:22, where the same words are used in this same sense. Or, Thou shalt call me out of the grave of my calamities, and I shall answer thee, and say, Here I am, raised out of the pit in which I was buried by thy powerful and gracious command. To the work of thine hands, i.e. to me, who am thy workmanship in divers respects, from whom thou now seemest to have an aversion and abhorrency; but I doubt not thou wilt have a desire, i.e. show thy affection or good will to me; or a desire to look upon me, and to deliver me. Nor is it strange that Job, who lately was upon the brink of despair, doth now breathe out words of hope; such ebbings and flowings being usual, both with Job elsewhere, as Job 13:15,16, and with David frequently in the Psalms, and with others of God’s people.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thou shall call, and I will answer thee,.... Either at death, when the soul of than is required of him, and he is summoned out of time into eternity, and has sometimes previous notice of it; though not by a prophet, or express messenger from the Lord, as Hezekiah had, yet by some disease and distemper or another, which has a voice, a call in it to expect a remove shortly; and a good man that is prepared for it, he answers to this call readily and cheerfully; death is no king of terrors to him, he is not reluctant to it, yea, desirous of it; entreats his dismission in peace, and even longs for it, and rejoices and triumphs in the views of it: or else at the resurrection, when Christ shall call to the dead, as he did to Lazarus, and say, Come forth; and when they shall hear his voice, even the voice of the archangel, and shall answer to it, and come forth out of their graves, the sea, death, and the grave, being obliged to deliver up the dead that are therein; though some think this refers to God's call unto him in a judicial way, and his answers to it by way of defence, as in Job 13:22; but the other sense seems more agreeable to the context:

thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands; meaning his body, which is the workmanship of God, and a curious piece of workmanship it is, wonderfully and fearfully made, Psalm 139:14, and curiously wrought; and though it may seem to be marred and spoiled by death, yet God will have a desire to the restoration of it at the resurrection to a better condition; even the bodies of his people, and that because they are vessels chosen by him, given to his Son, redeemed by his blood, united to his person, and sanctified by his Spirit, whose temples they are, and in whom he dwells: wherefore upon these considerations it may be reasonably supposed that Father, Son, and Spirit, have a desire to the resurrection of the bodies of the saints, and in which they will have a concern; and from which it may be concluded it will be certainly effected, since God is a rock, and his work is perfect, or will be, both upon the bodies and souls of his people; and the work of sanctification will not be properly completed on them until their vile bodies are changed, and made like to the glorious body of Christ; which must be very desirable to him, who has such a special love for them, and delight in them. Some render the words with an interrogation, "wilt thou desire to destroy the work of thine hands" (e)? surely thou wilt not; or, as Ben Gersom,

"is it fit that thou shouldest desire to destroy the work of thine hands?''

surely it is not becoming, it cannot be thought that thou wilt do it; but the former sense is best.

(e) "perdere desiderabis?" Pagninus, Vatablus.

Geneva Study Bible

Thou shalt call, and I will {h} answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

(h) Though I am afflicted in this life, yet in the resurrection I will feel your mercies and answer when you call me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 15. - Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee; rather, thou shouldest call, and I would answer thee (see the Revised Version). In that case, when I quitted Hades, and renewed my life, thou wouldst assuredly summon me to thee, and I would respond to the summons. There would be sweet colloquy between us; for thou wilt (or, rather, wouldest) have a desire to the work of thine hands (comp. ch. 10:8-11). Job assumes that God must love whatever he has created, and be drawn towards it by a secret, strong desire. Job 14:15

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

13 Oh that Thou wouldst hide me in Shel,

That Thou wouldst conceal me till Thine anger change,

That Thou wouldst appoint me a time and then remember me!

14 If man dieth, shall he live again?

All the days of my warfare would Iwait,

Until my change should come.

15 Thou wouldst call and I would answer,

Thou wouldst have a desire for the work of Thy hands -

16 For now thou numberest my steps,

And dost not restrain thyself over my sins.

The optative יתּן מי introduces a wish that has reference to the future, and is therefore, as at Job 6:8, followed by futt.; comp. on the other hand, Job 23:3, utinam noverim. The language of the wish reminds one of such passages in the Psalms as Psalm 31:21; Psalm 27:5 (comp. Isaiah 26:20): "In the day of trouble He hideth me in His pavilion, and in the secret of His tabernacle doth He conceal me." So Job wishes that Hades, into which the wrath of God now precipitates him for ever, may only be a temporary place of safety for him, until the wrath of God turn away (שׁוּב, comp. the causative, Job 9:13); that God would appoint to him, when there, a חק, i.e., a terminus ad quem (comp. Job 14:5), and when this limit should be reached, again remember him in mercy. This is a wish that Job marks out for himself. The reality is indeed different: "if (ἐὰν) a man dies, will he live again?" The answer which Job's consciousness, ignorant of anything better, alone can give, is: No, there is no life after death. It is, however, none the less a craving of his heart that gives rise to the wish; it is the most favourable thought, - a desirable possibility, - which, if it were but a reality, would comfort him under all present suffering: "all the days of my warfare would I wait until my change came." צבא is the name he gives to the whole of this toilsome and sorrowful interval between the present and the wished-for goal, - the life on earth, which he likens to the service of the soldier or of the hireling (Job 7:1), and which is subject to an inevitable destiny (Job 5:7) of manifold suffering, together with the night of Hades, where this life is continued in its most shadowy and dismal phase. And חליפה does not here signify destruction in the sense of death, as the Jewish expositors, by comparing Isaiah 2:18 and Sol 2:11, explain it; but (with reference to צבאי, comp. Job 10:17) the following after (Arab. chlı̂ft, succession, successor, i.e., of Mohammed), relief, change (syn. תּמוּרה, exchange, barter), here of change of condition, as Psalm 55:20, of change of mind; Aquila, Theod., ἄλλαγμα. Oh that such a change awaited him! What a blessed future would it be if it should come to pass! Then would God call to him in the depth of Shel, and he, imprisoned until the appointed time of release, would answer Him from the deep. After His anger was spent, God would again yearn after the work of His hands (comp. Job 10:3), the natural loving relation between the Creator and His creature would again prevail, and it would become manifest that wrath is only a waning power (Isaiah 54:8), and love His true and essential attribute. Schlottman well observes: "Job must have had a keen perception of the profound relation between the creature and his Maker in the past, to be able to give utterance to such an imaginative expectation respecting the future."

In Job 14:16, Job supports what is cheering in this prospect, with which he wishes he might be allowed to console himself, by the contrast of the present. עתּה כּי is used here as in Job 6:21; כי is not, as elsewhere, where עתה כי introduces the conclusion, confirmatory (indeed now equals then indeed), but assigns a reason (for now). Now God numbers his steps (Job 13:27), watching him as a criminal, and does not restrain himself over his sin. Most modern expositors (Ew., Hlgst, Hahn, Schlottm.) translate: Thou observest not my sins, i.e., whether they are to be so severely punished or not; but this is poor. Raschi: Thou waitest not over my sins, i.e., to punish them; instead of which Ralbag directly: Thou waitest not for my sins equals repentance or punishment; but שׁמר is not supported in the meaning: to wait, by Genesis 37:11. Aben-Ezra: Thou lookest not except on my sins, by supplying רק, according to Ecclesiastes 2:24 (where, however, probably משׁיאכל should be read, and מ after אדם, just as in Job 33:17, has fallen away). The most doubtful is, with Hirzel, to take the sentence as interrogative, in opposition to the parallelism: and dost Thou not keep watch over my sins? It seems to me that the sense intended must be derived from the phrase אף שׁמר, which means to keep anger, and consequently to delay the manifestation of it (Amos 1:11). This phrase is here so applied, that we obtain the sense: Thou keepest not Thy wrath to thyself, but pourest it out entirely. Mercerus is substantially correct: non reservas nec differs peccati mei punitionem.