Jó 14

¹ Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.

² He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down. He too flees as a shadow, and does not continue.

³ And do thou open thine eyes upon such a one, and bring me into judgment with thee?

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 thee, and thou have appointed his bounds that he cannot pass,

⁶ look away from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.

⁷ For there is hope of a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch of it will not cease.

⁸ Though the root of it grows old in the earth, and the trunk of it dies in the ground,

⁹ yet through the scent of water it will bud, and put forth boughs like a plant.

¹⁰ But man dies, and is laid low. Yea, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?

¹¹ [As] the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes away and dries up,

¹² so man lays down and does not rise. Till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.

¹³ O that thou would hide me in Sheol, that thou would keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou would appoint for me a set time, and remember me!

¹⁴ If a man dies, shall he live [again]? All the days of my warfare I would wait till my release should come.

¹⁵ Thou would call, and I would answer thee. Thou would have a desire to the work of thy hands.

¹⁶ But now thou number my steps. Do thou not watch over my sin?

¹⁷ My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou fasten up my iniquity.

¹⁸ But the falling mountain comes to nothing, and the rock is removed out of its place.

¹⁹ The waters wear the stones. The overflowings of it wash away the dust of the earth. So thou destroy the hope of man.

²⁰ Thou prevail forever against him, and he passes. Thou change his countenance, and send him away.

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

²² But his flesh upon him has pain, and his soul within him mourns.