Question:
Please explain Job 14:22. Does it mean that the soul within man shall mourn after he dies?
Answer:
No, it does not. The connection must be taken into consideration. Job is telling us of the sorrowful state of man. He will come to nothing. He constantly looks forward to the change that will occur when he goes down into silence. In that condition of silence, “His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.” (Verse 21). The 13th verse reads, “O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret…” Chapter 17:13 expresses a similar thought: “If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.”
Job 14:22 refers to his condition before that. While contemplating his end, “his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.” Spurrell’s translation of the verse is, “Surely the flesh upon him shall consume away, and his soul shall lament over it;” previous, of course, to his death.
According to the unscriptural view of the soul after death (the immortal soul), it has no flesh upon it; it is absolutely free. Therefore, according to that theory, this could not refer to after death. It must refer to a time when one is in the flesh, and the time to which Job refers is when a man is decaying and hastening on to his death. When death comes, it is darkness, silence, unconsciousness, sleep.
