Job 14:20 (KJV)

What does Job 14:20 mean?

Job 14:20 describes how God’s power over a person is unending: God overcomes a person, and then that person dies and is gone; God changes the person’s appearance and sends him away. The verse pictures the finality of death and God’s control over human fate.

In this verse, Job is speaking to God, reflecting on the shortness and fragility of human life. Job is lamenting how every person, no matter how strong, eventually passes away because God wills it. The language highlights Job’s sense of helplessness before God’s authority and the certainty that everyone’s life ends under God’s command.

The Hebrew behind Job 14:20

• "prevailest" (תִּתְגַּבֵּר, titgabber): This word means to overcome or have power over. Job uses it to stress that God’s power is absolute and cannot be resisted by any person.
• "changest his countenance" (תְּשַׁנֶּה פָּנָיו, teshanneh panav): Literally, "you change his face." This often refers to the change that death brings to a person’s appearance, emphasizing the physical reality and finality of death.
• "sendest him away" (תְּשַׁלְּחֶנּוּ, teshallekhennu): This means to send someone off or dismiss. Here, it points to God sending a person away from life, underlining that death is not random but under God’s direction.

Why Job 14:20 matters

• Job 14:20 clears up any idea that people can resist or escape God’s will regarding life and death; Job’s words stress that God’s decision is final.
• The verse connects to Job’s larger lament about human mortality and the seeming harshness of life’s limits, showing his deep struggle to understand suffering and death.
• The imagery of God changing a person’s face and sending him away adds a personal, almost tender detail to the reality of death, reminding the reader that each life’s end is seen and directed by God.