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Questions From Readers

● Does not Job 14:22 show the torment of the soul after death of the body?—J. M., United States.

Job 14:20-22 reads: “Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them. But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.” It is true that Job 14 verses 20 and 21 describe the death state, but Job 14 verse 22 does not. It refers back to the troublous existence previously discussed by Job, where the few days of man born of woman are shown to be full of trouble. According to the believers of torment of the soul after death of the body, the soul separates from the body and the body of flesh decays away. They do not teach immortality of the body and that the body lives on in a lake of fire to be tormented in the flesh. So the very wording of this verse precludes them from using it as proof of eternal torment for the soul because it speaks of the flesh having pain. It is while a man is living that his flesh has pain or is able to feel pain, and when the verse adds that his soul within him mourns it is merely expressing the same general thought in a parallel structure. It is just a poetic way of saying that the individual is mourning. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die,” but while it is a living soul or an animated body of blood and flesh its days will be full of trouble and pain.—Ezek. 18:4.