For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
Ver. 7. For there is hope of a tree, &c.] Here Job setteth on his request, Job 14:6, with a reason; God loveth a reasonable service, and liketh well that we reverently reason it out with him. And for the literal sense, all things, saith Gregory, are so plain, that there is no need to say anything to that, it being no more than this; either I shall have comfort in this world before I die, or never here; therefore grant me rest now. This argument Job illustrateth, 1. By a dissimilitude, here. 2. By a similitude, Job 14:11,12. The dissimilitude between a tree and a man is this: a tree may be hewed and felled, yet feel no pain. Again, succisa repullalat, imbribus irrigata, a tree cut down, if well watered, - will spring and sprout up again (Merlin). But now man, as he is very sensible of every stroke of God's hand, neither can he suffer sickness or other affliction without smart, so when once cut down by death, he can by no means be recovered; he cannot revive without a miracle.