Job 14

14TH CHAPTER

Job Continues: Consider My Frail Human Nature, God

¹“A person who is born of a woman is short-lived 

and is full of trouble. 

²He comes up like a flower; then he withers. 

He is like a fleeting shadow; he doesn’t stay long. 

³You observe this 

and call me to account to you. 

⁴“If only an unclean person could become clean!^a

It’s not possible. 

⁵If the number of his days 

and the number of his months are determined by you, 

and you set his limit, 

then he cannot go past it. 

⁶Look away from him, and he will cease to be. 

Meanwhile, he loves life as a laborer loves work. 

⁷There is hope for a tree when it is cut down. 

It will sprout again. 

Its shoots will not stop sprouting. 

⁸If its roots grow old in the ground 

and its stump dies in the soil, 

⁹merely a scent of water will make it sprout 

and grow branches like a plant. 

¹⁰But a human dies and is powerless. 

A person breathes his last breath, and where is he? 

¹¹⸤As⸥ water drains out of a lake, 

or ⸤as⸥ a river dries up completely, 

¹²so each person lies down 

and does not rise until the heavens cease to exist. 

He does not wake up. 

He is not awakened from his sleep. 

¹³I wish you would hide me in Sheol 

and keep me hidden there until your anger cools. 

Set a specific time for me when you will remember me. 

¹⁴“If a person dies, will he go on living? 

I will wait for my relief to come 

as long as my hard labor continues. 

¹⁵You will call, and I will answer you. 

You will long for the person your hands have made. 

¹⁶Though now you count my steps, 

you will not keep ⸤a record of⸥ my sins. 

¹⁷My disobedience will be closed up in a bag, 

and you will cover over my sins. 

¹⁸As surely as a mountain falls 

and rocks are dislodged, 

¹⁹⸤so⸥ water wears away stone, 

floods wash away soil from the land, 

and you destroy a mortal’s hope. 

²⁰You overpower him forever, and he passes away. 

You change his appearance and send him away. 

²¹His sons are honored, and he doesn’t know it. 

Or they become unimportant, and he doesn’t realize it. 

²²He feels only his body’s pain. 

He is only worried about himself.”