Job 14:13-22, Change is a’comin!

Here is a simple study that affirms the precise wording of the Bible.  In Job 14 Job speaks of “change” twice, but the Hebrew words are not the same.

In 14:14 Job speaks of death: If a man dies, shall he live again?  That’s a great question, and we might assume he means, “is there life after death?”  But he more likely means, “if a man dies, will he live again on earth?  Will he again be able to enjoy life on earth?”  He is more concerned with the finality of death, as can be seen in 14:10: But man dies and is laid away; indeed he breathes his last and where is he?

But 14:14 continues, in the parallel line, All the days of my hard service I will wait, till my change comes.  The word “change” is synonymous with “death.”  On one hand, he says he will not live again, not necessarily denying the resurrection, but rather denying reincarnation.  We don’t get a “repeat.”

But what does it mean to “change?”  The Hebrew halipa used 12 times in the OT is used of a “change of garments” in 8 of those uses, the first use being Gen. 45:22 when in Egypt Joseph gave his brothers changes of garments before they returned to bring Jacob back to Egypt.  In 1 Ki. 5:14 Solomon sent a labor force to Lebanon, ten thousand a month in shifts.  All these uses speak of a change that occurs with continuation.  Job used this term because he did understand there was life after death, a change with continuation.  Verse 15 refers to this afterlife, when we appear before God: You shall call, and I will answer You; You shall desire the work of Your hands.

We should not be surprised at this as Heb. 11:10-16 makes it clear the Patriarchs were looking for a city not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.  The OT may not give much detail about this future life but it is and must be true: accountability to our Creator, the Judge of the whole earth, must come.

Later in 14:20 we again see the English “change:” You change his countenance and send him away.  Here Job is speaking of the stages of life.  In the midst of this life on earth God brings a man through “changes of life,” we could say, such as what Job was experiencing. 

Here the word is sana (22x) that specifically means “to repeat, do again.”  The first use is in Gen. 41:32, again in the context of the story of Joseph in Egypt, when Pharaoh’s dream is repeated.  Job, correctly of course, did not use this term in 14:14 because it would have indicated “reincarnation,” a repeat living of life, a second chance, etc.  But he uses it here because he is talking about the look on his face, something that changes several times throughout life, from childhood to youth to adulthood to old age. 

Simple study.  Great reminder.  Every word of God is pure; He is a shield … (Prov. 30:5).  The word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield … (Ps. 18:30).