Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
As the waters fail from the sea - As the waters evaporate wholly, and leave the bottom wholly dry, so it is with man, who passes entirely away, and leaves nothing. But to what fact Job refers here, is not known. The sea or ocean has never been dried up, so as to furnish a ground for this comparison. Noyes renders it, "the lake." Dr. Good, without the slightest authority, renders it, "as the billows pass away with the tides." Herder supposes it to mean that until the waters fail from the sea man will not rise again, but the Hebrew will not bear this interpretation. Probably the true interpretation is, that which makes the word rendered sea ( yâm ) refer to a lake, or a stagnant pool; see Isaiah 11:15, note; Isaiah 19:5, note. The word is applied not unfrequently to a lake, as to the lake of Genesareth, Numbers 34:11; to the Dead Sea, Genesis 14:3; Deuteronomy 4:49; Zechariah 14:8. It is used, also, to denote the Nile, Isaiah 19:5, and the Euphrates, Isaiah 27:1. It is also employed to denote the brass sea that was made by Solomon, and placed in front of the temple; II Kings 25:13. I see no reason to doubt, therefore, that it may be used here to denote the collections of water, which were made by torrents pouring down from the mountains, and which would after a little while wholly evaporate.
And the flood decayeth - The river - nâhâr . Such an occurrence would be common in the parched countries of the East; see the notes at Job 6:15 ff. As such torrents vanish wholly away, so it was with man. Every vestige disappeared; compare II Samuel 14:14.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Job 14:11:
Job 14:18
Job 21:26
Job 22:16
Psalms 39:13
Daniel 2:5
James 4:14
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