“There is hope for a tree.
If it is cut down,
That it will sprout again.
Its shoots will not cease.
Its root grow old in the earth.
Its stump dies in the ground.
Yet at the scent of water it will bud.
It will put forth branches like a young plant.
But mortal men die.
They are laid low.
Humans expire.
Where are they?
As waters fail from a lake,
As a river wastes away and dries up,
Thus mortal men lie down.
They do not rise again.
Until the heavens are no more,
They will not awake.
They will not be roused out of their sleep.”
Job compared man to a tree. However, the tree was better off than the mortal humans. The tree could sprout again if it was cut down. Water could revive an old dead root or stump. Mortal men, on the other hand, were dead, plain and simple. They were more like water. Once they were gone, they were no more. Job did not understand osmosis and condensation. Job was against the resurrection. Once dead, you were dead not to rise again until the heavens were no more. Here we see the end times of all, not a personal individual resurrection. Mortal men could not be roused from their sleep.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 