Job 14

¹“Man that is born of a woman

is of few days, and full of trouble.

²He comes forth like a flower, and withers;

he flees like a shadow, and continues not.

³And dost thou open thy eyes upon such a one

and bring him into judgment with thee?

⁴Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?

There is not one.

⁵Since his days are determined,

and the number of his months is with thee,

and thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass,

⁶look away from him, and desist,

that he may enjoy, like a hireling, his day.

⁷“For there is hope for a tree,

if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,

and that its shoots will not cease.

⁸Though its root grow old in the earth,

and its stump die in the ground,

⁹yet at the scent of water it will bud

and put forth branches like a young plant.

¹⁰But man dies, and is laid low;

man breathes his last, and where is he?

¹¹As waters fail from a lake,

and a river wastes away and dries up,

¹²so man lies down and rises not again;

till the heavens are no more he will not awake,

or be roused out of his sleep.

¹³Oh that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol,

that thou wouldest conceal me until thy wrath be past,

that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

¹⁴If a man die, shall he live again?

All the days of my service I would wait,

till my release should come.

¹⁵Thou wouldest call, and I would answer thee;

thou wouldest long for the work of thy hands.

¹⁶For then thou wouldest number my steps,

thou wouldest not keep watch over my sin;

¹⁷my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,

and thou wouldest cover over my iniquity.

¹⁸“But the mountain falls and crumbles away,

and the rock is removed from its place;

¹⁹the waters wear away the stones;

the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;

so thou destroyest the hope of man.

²⁰Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passes;

thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.

²¹His sons come to honor, and he does not know it;

they are brought low, and he perceives it not.

²²He feels only the pain of his own body,

and he mourns only for himself.”