Job 14

¹  “Man, who is born of a woman,
    is of few days, and full of trouble.
² He grows up like a flower, and is cut down.
    He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.
³ Do you open your eyes on such a one,
    and bring me into judgment with you?
⁴ Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
    Not one.
⁵     Seeing his days are determined,
    the number of his months is with you,
    and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass;
⁶ Look away from him, that he may rest,
    until he accomplishes, as a hireling, his day.

⁷ “For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down,
    that it will sprout again,
    that the tender branch of it will not cease.
⁸ Though its root grows old in the earth,
    and its stock dies in the ground,
⁹ yet through the scent of water it will bud,
    and sprout boughs like a plant.
¹⁰ But man dies, and is laid low.
    Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?
¹¹ As the waters fail from the sea,
    and the river wastes and dries up,
¹² so man lies down and doesn’t rise.
    Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake,
    nor be roused out of their sleep.

¹³ “Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, ^[a]
    that you would keep me secret until your wrath is past,
    that you would appoint me a set time and remember me!
¹⁴ If a man dies, will he live again?
    I would wait all the days of my warfare,
    until my release should come.
¹⁵ You would call, and I would answer you.
    You would have a desire for the work of your hands.
¹⁶ But now you count my steps.
    Don’t you watch over my sin?
¹⁷ My disobedience is sealed up in a bag.
    You fasten up my iniquity.

¹⁸ “But the mountain falling comes to nothing.
    The rock is removed out of its place;
¹⁹ The waters wear the stones.
    The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth.
    So you destroy the hope of man.
²⁰ You forever prevail against him, and he departs.
    You change his face, and send him away.
²¹ His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it.
    They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them.
²² But his flesh on him has pain,
    and his soul within him mourns.”