Job 14:15 · Bible study
Job 14:15 Commentary: Call, Answer, and the Longing for Resurrection
Hebrew · 10 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Does Job hope for resurrection or only wish for present justice? A study of the Hebrew words, the context of despair, and what the commentaries say.
Research Summary
- Meaning: Job imagines a moment when God calls, either in court, at death, or at resurrection, and he responds, because God yearns for his own creation.
- Key words: “Call” (קָרָא, qara, summon or invite), “answer” (עָנָה, anah, respond), “desire” (כָּסַף, kasaph, long so intensely one grows pale).
- Main debate: Does Job expect vindication in this life (Barnes) or a future resurrection (Clarke, JFB)? The text leans toward a wish, not a settled doctrine.
- Theological theme: God’s longing for His people; the dignity of humans as God’s handiwork; the first stirrings of resurrection hope in the Old Testament.
- Best use: A model for honest, longing prayer in the midst of suffering; a bridge between Old Testament shadow and New Testament light.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
You will call, and I will answer; You will desire the work of Your hands.
WEB World English Bible 2000
You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire for the work of your hands.
KJV King James Version 1769
Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
Thou wouldest call, and I would answer thee: Thou wouldest have a desire to the work of thy hands.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
Thou dost call, and I--I answer Thee; To the work of Thy hands Thou hast desire.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
Thou wouldest call, and I would answer thee; thou wouldest have a desire after the work of thy hands.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
Thou shalt call me, and I will answer thee: to the work of thy hands thou shalt reach out thy right hand.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Aficionado á la obra de tus manos, llamarás, y yo te responderé.
Tu me chamarás, e eu te responderei; e te afeiçoarás à obra de tuas mãos.
Tu appellerais alors, et je te répondrais,
Du würdest rufen und ich dir antworten; es würde dich verlangen nach dem Werk deiner Hände.
Dat Gij zoudt roepen, en ik U zou antwoorden, dat Gij tot het werk Uwer handen zoudt begerig zijn.
tu mi chiameresti e io risponderei, tu brameresti rivedere l’opera delle tue mani.
Zawołasz, a ja tobie odpowiem; a spraw rąk twoich pożądasz.
Воззвал бы Ты, и я дал бы Тебе ответ, и Ты явил бы благоволение творению рук Твоих;
你呼叫，我 便回答；你手 所做的，你必羨慕。
At the sound of your voice I would give an answer, and you would have a desire for the work of your hands.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Job 14:15
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators agree that Job 14:15 expresses a deep, personal longing for restored relationship with God. Matthew Henry sees it as a patient waiting: “Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee,” linking it to Job’s earlier wish for a set time and change (v. 14). Adam Clarke reads it as clear resurrection hope: God will call at the judgment, and the dissolved frame will be united. Barnes takes the words as a present desire for immediate trial: “Call now, and I will respond,” not a future hope. Keil & Delitzsch note the optative wish, understanding Job as hoping that Sheol might be only a temporary hiding place until God’s wrath passes. The verb “have a desire” (תִכְסֹף, tikhsof) carries the sense of yearning so intense it makes one pale, suggesting God’s own longing for His creature. The core agreement: Job imagines a moment when God initiates, and he responds. The debate turns on when that moment occurs, in this life or beyond death.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: High
Main views:
- Resurrection hope: The context of waiting for ‘change’ (v. 14) and the verb for intense desire suggest God will restore His work at the end, supported by Clarke and JFB.
- Present vindication wish: Barnes and some critical commentaries read the call/answer as legal language for an immediate trial before Job dies, not a future life.
- Wishful thought without assurance: The Cambridge Bible and Keil & Delitzsch see it as a prayer, not a confident belief; Job hopes for something his culture says is impossible, but he does not claim to know it will happen.
What is clear: Job yearns for a moment when God will initiate contact and he will respond, and he believes God has a deep, personal longing for His own creature.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Interpretation of 'call and answer' | The language echoes a legal setting, likely a courtroom scene where God summons and Job responds. | Some (Barnes, Gill) take it as an immediate request for trial; others (Clarke, JFB) see it as a future resurrection call. |
| Nature of Job's hope | Job expresses a deep longing for restored relationship with God, beyond present suffering. | Whether that longing is a confident hope of resurrection or only a wishful thought that he himself doubts (see v. 14a). Reformed and evangelical traditions tend toward resurrection; more critical readings emphasize the tentative, wishful character. |
| Meaning of 'work of your hands' | Refers to human beings as God's creation, emphasizing human dignity. | Some see it as an argument for God's continuing care (Clarke: God longs for His masterpiece); others see it as a contrast to God's current destructive action (Job 10:8). The debate reflects whether the verse is optimistic or pleading. |
| The verb 'tikhsof' (desire) | It expresses intense, even physical longing (to become pale). | Barnes interprets it as an imperative ('do desire') urging God to act now; others treat it as a simple future indicative describing God's character. The decision affects whether the verse is a demand or a statement of faith. |
| Connection to New Testament resurrection | The verse resonates with later resurrection hope (Psalms 138:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:17). | Some see direct prophecy (Clarke); others argue Job's horizon was limited to this life (Barnes, Lange) and the resonance is thematic, not direct prediction. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Job speaks from within a world where death was the great extinguisher. Hebrew thought pictured Sheol as a shadowy underworld where existence continued but without meaningful activity or communion with God. The Cambridge Bible notes that death was not annihilation, but a “dreamy shadow” of life. Job himself earlier described it: “As the waters fail from the sea… so man lies down and does not rise” (v. 11, 12).
Into this bleak landscape, Job dares to imagine something different. He uses a legal formula: call and answer, the language of a courtroom (cf. Job 13:22). This may be an attempt to force a hearing with God before he dies. But the word “change” (חֲלִיפָה, halifah) in verse 14 suggests a transition, perhaps to a different state. Keil & Delitzsch argue that Job is not speaking of annihilation but of a relief or exchange, a change of condition. The surrounding verses (18, 20) then return to despair, mountains crumbling, rocks moving, hope destroyed. So verse 15 sits as a fragile crescendo of faith, immediately swallowed by doubt.
Cultural background reinforces the boldness of Job’s wish. The work of God’s hands (v. 15; also 10:3,8) was a phrase used to argue both for God’s care and for His right to destroy. Job here flips it: if God made us, surely He won’t abandon us forever. This is the earliest seed of the resurrection hope that later Scriptures develop.
Textual Notes
The consulted sources note no significant textual variants for Job 14:15. The Masoretic Text is consistent across manuscripts.
Reception History
Early Christian writers such as Clement of Rome and Irenaeus saw in this verse a prefiguration of the resurrection: God calling to the dead, and they answering. The medieval Jewish commentator Rashi interpreted the ‘desire’ as God’s ongoing care for the soul. During the Reformation, Calvin and Luther read the verse as an expression of faith in future life, though Luther noted its tentative quality. In the Wesleyan tradition, Adam Clarke preached it as a clear reference to the general resurrection. Many modern critical scholars, like Driver and Gray, treat it as a wish arising from despair rather than a firm expectation. The verse has been set to music in hymns about the resurrection and is often read at Christian funerals as a statement of hope.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- God calls first. In verse 15, Job imagines God initiating. The call is not a summons to judgment but an invitation to relationship. Underline that our faith is always response to God’s prior reaching out.
- The longing of God. The Hebrew verb tikhsof means to grow pale with desire. God is not indifferent to what He made. This moves the emotional center from Job’s suffering to God’s yearning.
- Hope set against despair. The verse sits between two descriptions of death (vv. 11, 12, 18, 20). The hope is real but not yet fully formed. It is a cry, not a doctrine. That makes it honest for those who struggle.
Five-point outline
- Context: Job has just asked, “If a man dies, will he live again?” (v. 14). Verse 15 is his tentative yes.
- Legal language: “Call…answer” echoes courtroom proceedings (Job 13:22). Job wants a fair hearing, but now imagines it taking place beyond death.
- Work of Your hands: This phrase appears in Job 10:3,8; 14:15; Psalms 138:8. It affirms human dignity as God’s creation and becomes an argument for God’s faithfulness.
- God’s desire: The verb kasaph is used for intense longing (Genesis 31:30, Psalm 84:2). Attributing such emotion to God is a powerful theological claim.
- Unfinished hope: The next verses return to despair (14:18, 20). Job’s hope is real but not comprehensive. It models faith that holds on even when the answer isn’t complete.
Illustration hooks
- Waiting in the hospital. A family sits by a loved one’s bed, hoping for a turn that may not come. The call of the doctor, the answer of a machine. Job’s hope is that thin.
- Lost and found. Someone finds a worn-out object they made years ago, a toy, a letter. The longing to restore it. God’s desire for us is more than sentimental; it is creative.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Is it okay to hope for something that might not happen? Job’s faith is not certainty, but longing.
- Does God really care about my physical body, or only my soul? The “work of His hands” includes our whole person.
- Why does the Bible seem to say different things about life after death? This verse shows the gradual dawning of the resurrection hope.
Leading a Discussion
This verse captures a desperate man’s longing for God’s presence beyond death. Your group may wrestle with how much Job knew about resurrection. The goal is not to settle theology but to enter the raw honesty of Job’s prayer. Encourage everyone to read the whole chapter aloud.
Discussion questions
- What is Job asking for in verse 13, 14? How does verse 15 feel like an answer?
- Read Job 10:3,8 and Psalm 138:8. How do these verses use the phrase “work of your hands” differently?
- The Hebrew verb for “desire” (kasaph) can mean to become pale with longing. What does it tell you about God that this word is used of Him?
- Job uses legal language: “call” and “answer.” In what situations have you felt the need for God to answer you directly?
- Verse 16 suddenly shifts to guilt and surveillance. Why do you think Job pulls back from hope?
- How does verse 15 compare to the resurrection hope in 1 Thessalonians 4:17? What is similar, what is different?
- Where in your life right now do you need to say, “You would call, and I would answer”? How can your group support you?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Job 7:21 | Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now will I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I will not be.” |
| Job 10:3 | Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked? |
| Job 10:8 | “‘Your hands have framed me and fashioned me altogether, yet you destroy me. |
| Job 13:22 | Then call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you answer me. |
| Psalms 50:4 | He calls to the heavens above, to the earth, that he may judge his people: |
| Psalms 50:5 | “Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” |
| Psalms 138:8 | Yahweh will fulfill that which concerns me. Your loving kindness, Yahweh, endures forever. Don’t forsake the works of your own hands. |
| I Thessalonians 4:17 | then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever. |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
10 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke notes that God has determined human resurrection and created people as a masterwork of his skill and goodness. He says God will bring the dead back and the person’s body and soul will be united again.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes reads this as Job's urgent courtroom plea, not a future hope but a demand for immediate hearing. He insists the second line should be an imperative, "do thou have a desire," expressing Job's longing that God would show concern for His own creature. Underlying the plea is a word meaning to long so intensely one grows pale.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges notes that Job’s prayer expresses a hope the dead person might be taken by God to live again after death. This view comes from his belief that God will eventually end his anger and call him back to fellowship.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The note stresses that God loves His own creation and will answer when called. The point is not human worthiness but God's prior attachment: He regards believers as the work of His hands and responds to them out of that tender care.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill sees this verse pointing beyond death to the resurrection, when Christ calls the dead and they answer. He stresses that God desires the body because it is His own handiwork, chosen, redeemed, and sanctified. This divine care guarantees the body's restoration.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
Jamieson Fausset Brown notes Job longs for a resurrection because he believes God will not leave his wonderful creation in oblivion. He argues this hope was necessary to explain why God allows the righteous to suffer.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch highlight that Job dares to wish for a temporary hiding place in Sheol until God's anger passes, but his actual belief is that life ends at death. This wish for a future change and divine recall is Job's own imaginative hope, not a confident doctrine, driven by his deep sense of the Creator's love beneath present wrath.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange reads this verse as a momentary flash of hope in Job’s long descent into despair. After demanding a trial with God, Job suddenly imagines God calling and him answering, and even yearning for the work of His own hands, before immediately returning to lament human frailty.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry notes that a tree cut down may grow new shoots even if its roots and trunk die. He says man dies completely and never returns to life.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley highlights the believer's cheerful, immediate response to God's call, grounded in the confidence that God loves what He has made and remade by grace. The soul answers "Here I am" not from fear but from knowing the Creator desires His own handiwork.