Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
Job speaks these words in the middle of his suffering. He describes a life that is short and already measured out before it begins. Job never doubts that God fixes the limits of every human life. What he does with that fact is where the trouble starts.
A Life Already Settled by God
Job's picture of man in this chapter is a flower cut down and a shadow that does not stay. The days themselves are the point: God counts them, not us. One writer draws out a double truth here. Human life feels unstable, yet God has settled all of it.
William KellyHere it is simply man born of woman, never born of God... "He comes out like a flower, and is cut down; he flees like a shadow, and does not last." You know very well — we all know — that many children die. Death is most frequent there... "Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass." So it is all uncertain — a shaky position as far as man is concerned — but God has settled all of it.
The Limit He Cannot Pass
Because man's days are few, his life must end, and God decides when. Another writer presses past that fact with a question the verse does not answer.
F. B. HoleMan has few days. His life in this world must end in death, and God decides the time when he goes, as verse 5 states. But what then? Job felt he was just like a hired worker putting in his day, and he wished that God would give him rest until the end came. But again, what then?
Submission or Complaint?
In the next line Job asks God to look away from him. That plea can be taken two ways. One commentator asks what Job really wanted from the God who set his limits.
Leslie M. GrantHe recognises that God has determined the length of a man's life, and man cannot overstep his limits. But why did Job not fully submit at this time to the greater work of God? Why did he strain against the limits God had placed him under? (v.5). "Look away from him that he may rest," Job says. Did he mean he wanted God to relax the limits, so he could rest comfortably? For he was only like a hired man: could he not finish his day's work in peace?
A Song of Frailty Without Its Faith
Job's speech ends here, and the first round of the debate ends with it. Another writer measures Job's closing words against two psalms.
Samuel RidoutThe close of this speech brings the first round of the debate to an end. It is a most beautiful funeral song about the frailty and uncertainty of human life. Man comes up like a flower, and is cut down and withers. We are listening to the cry of Psalm 90, but without its faith in God, and not yet followed by the triumph of Psalm 91.
What Lies Past the Boundary
Job draws his limit at the grave, and in this chapter he does not look past it. One writer says Job is right as far as his sight goes.
J. N. DarbyIn Job 14 he clearly does not look past this present world of sight. In the bitterness of his spirit he has no sense of resurrection. The tree sprouts now, and visibly, in this present world — man does not... Job was right, only he did not see beyond, nor here know Him who is the resurrection and the life.
The same hand that sets the boundary reaches past it.
C. KnappOur coming into the world is completely under God's control. And once we are born, our life is in His hand. Death, too, answers to His will... He is "the sovereign Lord of life and death." He kills; death is His black-winged messenger... He "makes alive," and "brings up" from the grave. Resurrection is the sovereign act of His power.
Summary
- Determined. God counts your days. Your months are already with Him — uncertain to you, settled with Him.
- Bounded. The limit is real: life in this world must end, and the timing of that end is God's decision, not yours.
- Contested. Job accepts the limit but strains against it. He asks God to look away instead of fully submitting to Him.
- Incomplete. His cry is as honest as Psalm 90 about frailty, but it never reaches Psalm 90's faith. In this chapter he sees nothing past the grave.
- Answered. The One who fixes the boundary also crosses it: He kills and makes alive, and resurrection is the act of His own power.