Chapter 14

¹“Man, who is born of a woman,

Is of few days, and full of trouble.

²He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down.

He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.

³Do you open your eyes on such a one,

And bring me into judgment with you?

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

Not one.

⁵Seeing his days are determined,

The number of his months is with you,

And you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass;

⁶Look away from him, that he may rest,

Until he shall accomplish, 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.

⁸Though the root of it grows old in the earth,

And the stock of it dies in the ground;

⁹Yet through the scent of water it will bud,

And put forth boughs like a plant.

¹⁰But man dies, and is laid low.

Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?

¹¹As the waters fail from the sea,

And the river wastes and dries up,

¹²So man lies down and doesn’t rise;

Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake,

Nor be roused out of their sleep.

¹³“Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,

That you would keep me secret, until your wrath is past,

That you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!

¹⁴If a man dies, shall he live again?

All the days of my warfare would I wait,

Until my release should come.

¹⁵You would call, and I would answer you.

You would have a desire to the work of your hands.

¹⁶But now you number my steps.

Don’t you watch over my sin?

¹⁷My 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;

¹⁹The waters wear the stones;

The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth:

So you destroy the hope of man.

²⁰You forever prevail against him, and he passes;

You change his face, and send him away.

²¹His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it;

They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them.

²²But his flesh on him has pain;

His soul within him mourns.”