Job 14

¹ Man born of woman —
short of days, full of turmoil.

² He springs up like a flower and withers;
he flees like a shadow and does not last.

³ And do you open your eyes on such a one
and bring me into judgment with you?

⁴ Who can bring a clean thing from an unclean?
Not one.

⁵ Since his days are determined,
the number of his months is with you,
and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,

⁶ look away from him, and leave him alone,
that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.

⁷ For there is hope for a tree —
if it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its shoots will not cease.

⁸ Though its root grows old in the earth
and its stump dies in the soil,

⁹ at the scent of water it will bud
and put out branches like a young plant.

¹⁰ But a man dies and lies low;
when a mortal breathes his last, where is he?

¹¹ As waters vanish from a lake,
as a river dwindles and dries up,

¹² so man lies down and does not rise;
till the heavens are no more he will not wake
or be roused from his sleep.

¹³ Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
that you would conceal me till your wrath is past,
that you would appoint me a fixed time, then remember me!

¹⁴ If a man dies, will he live again?
All the days of my hard service I would wait
till my relief should come.

¹⁵ You would call, and I would answer you;
you would long for the work of your hands.

¹⁶ For then you would count my steps;
you would not watch over my sin.

¹⁷ My transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
and you would cover over my iniquity.

¹⁸ But as a mountain falls and crumbles away,
and as a rock is moved from its place,

¹⁹ as water wears away stones,
as floods wash away the soil of the earth —
so you destroy a man's hope.

²⁰ You overpower him once for all, and he passes;
you change his face and send him away.

²¹ His sons come to honor, and he does not know it;
they are brought low, and he does not perceive it.

²² He feels only the pain of his own body
and mourns only for himself.