Job 14:1–22

Job Continues: Death Comes Soon to All

14“Man who is ^kborn of a woman

is ^lfew of days and ^mfull of trouble.

²He comes out like ⁿa flower and ^owithers;

he flees like ^pa shadow and continues not.

³And do you ^qopen your eyes on such a one

and ^rbring me into judgment with you?

⁴Who can bring ^sa clean thing out of an unclean?

There is not one.

⁵Since his ^tdays are determined,

and ^uthe number of his months is with you,

and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,

^6vlook away from him and leave him alone,¹

that he may enjoy, like ^wa hired hand, 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 ^xits stump die in the soil,

⁹yet at the scent of water it will bud

and put out ^ybranches like a young plant.

¹⁰But a man dies and is laid low;

man breathes his last, and ^zwhere is he?

^11aAs waters fail from a lake

and a river wastes away and dries up,

¹²so a man lies down and rises not again;

till ^bthe heavens are no more he will not awake

or be ^croused out of his sleep.

¹³Oh that you would ^dhide me in ^eSheol,

that you would ^dconceal me ^funtil your wrath be 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 ^gservice I would ^hwait,

till my renewal² should come.

¹⁵You would ⁱcall, and I would answer you;

you would long for the ^jwork of your hands.

¹⁶For then you would ^knumber my steps;

you would not keep ^lwatch over my sin;

¹⁷my transgression would be ^msealed up in a bag,

and you would cover over my iniquity.

¹⁸“But the mountain falls and ⁿcrumbles away,

and ^othe rock is removed from its place;

¹⁹the waters wear away the stones;

the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;

so you destroy the hope of man.

²⁰You prevail forever against him, and he passes;

you change his countenance, and send him away.

²¹His sons come to honor, and he ^pdoes 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.”