What Does Job 14:8 Mean?
Though its root grows gray in the earth, and its stump dies in the earth.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;THE KEY
A root is not protected from decay by being hidden: Job’s image of a dying tree turns toward the question of human death.
THE MEANING
Even now, the verse lets decay reach beneath the surface: the root grows old, and the stock dies in the ground. The surrounding lines sharpen the ache: a tree buds at the scent of water, while Job asks where a dead human is.
THE ROOT
יָמוּת
yāmût
GROWS FROM
מות
m-w-t
die; death
“die” in this verse is yāmût. The same consonantal root names the act of dying and the condition of being dead. Job uses the verb again for a human in 14:10, so the tree’s death opens directly into his question about human death.
ALSO GROWS
māwet: death
מָוֶת
The noun names the same ending that the verb describes.
mēt: dead
מֵת
This form names the state reached by the stock as it dies.
גִּזְעוֹ
gizʿô
GROWS FROM
גזע
g-z-ʿ
stem, trunk, or stock
“stump” in this verse is gizʿô. The Hebrew word translated “stock” is the same word Isaiah 11:1 uses for Jesse’s “stem.” This tree part is the base from which Isaiah’s image of a new branch can emerge.
ALSO GROWS
gēzaʿ: stem, trunk, or stump
גֵּזַע
This is the standalone form behind the word for the tree’s stock.
gizʿim: stems or trunks
גִּזְעִים
The plural keeps the word rooted in the physical parts of a tree.
שָׁרְשׁוֹ
shārshô
GROWS FROM
שרש
sh-r-sh
root; take root
The noun for the hidden source and the verb for taking root share the same seed. Here, that source itself grows old, so being buried deep does not mean being untouched by time.
ALSO GROWS
shōresh: root or source beneath the surface
שֹׁרֶשׁ
This noun names the buried part that the verse says can age.
shārash: to take root or strike roots
שָׁרַשׁ
The verb connects the root as a thing with the act of becoming rooted.
THE PATTERN
Scripture’s plant images show that a source that appears spent can still hold the possibility of renewed growth.
Yet at the scent of water it buds, and makes branches like a sapling.And a shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse, and a sprout from his roots will bear fruit.Truly, truly, I say to you. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.THE THREAD
And a shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse, and a sprout from his roots will bear fruit.Isaiah uses the same Hebrew word גֵּזַע (gēzaʿ, “stem” or “stock”) for Jesse’s tree. The shared word makes Job’s dying stock the very place Isaiah’s image locates a new branch.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us