Job 14:19

as water wears away stones, and torrents ¹  wash away the soil, ²  so you destroy man’s hope. ³ 

Ge 6:17; Ge 7:21-23; Job 19:10; Job 27:8; Ps 30:6,7; Eze 37:11; Lu 12:19,20

¹ tn Heb “the overflowings of it”; the word סְפִיחֶיהָ (sÿfikheyha) in the text is changed by just about everyone. The idea of “its overflowings” or more properly “its aftergrowths” (Lev 25:5; 2 Kgs 19:29; etc.) does not fit here at all. Budde suggested reading סְחִפָה (sÿkhifah), which is cognate to Arabic sahifeh, “torrential rain, rainstorm” – that which sweeps away” the soil. The word סָחַף (sakhaf) in Hebrew might have a wider usage than the effects of rain.

² tn Heb “[the] dust of [the] earth.”

³ sn The meaning for Job is that death shatters all of man’s hopes for the continuation of life.