Job 14

14“Mortals, born of woman,^s

are of few days^t and full of trouble.^u

²They spring up like flowers^v and wither away;^w

like fleeting shadows,^x they do not endure.^y

³Do you fix your eye on them?^z

Will you bring them^a before you for judgment?^a

⁴Who can bring what is pure^b from the impure?^c

No one!^d

⁵A person’s days are determined;^e

you have decreed the number of his months^f

and have set limits he cannot exceed.^g

⁶So look away from him and let him alone,^h

till he has put in his time like a hired laborer.ⁱ

⁷“At least there is hope for a tree:^j

If it is cut down, it will sprout again,

and its new shoots^k will not fail.^l

⁸Its roots may grow old in the ground

and its stump^m die in the soil,

⁹yet at the scent of waterⁿ it will bud

and put forth shoots like a plant.^o

¹⁰But a man dies and is laid low;^p

he breathes his last and is no more.^q

¹¹As the water of a lake dries up

or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,^r

¹²so he lies down and does not rise;^s

till the heavens are no more,^t people will not awake

or be roused from their sleep.^u

¹³“If only you would hide me in the grave^v

and conceal me till your anger has passed!^w

If only you would set me a time

and then remember^x me!^y

¹⁴If someone dies, will they live again?

All the days of my hard service^z

I will wait for my renewal^ba to come.

¹⁵You will call and I will answer you;^b

you will long for the creature your hands have made.^c

¹⁶Surely then you will count my steps^d

but not keep track of my sin.^e

¹⁷My offenses will be sealed^f up in a bag;^g

you will cover over my sin.^h

¹⁸“But as a mountain erodes and crumblesⁱ

and as a rock is moved from its place,^j

¹⁹as water wears away stones

and torrents^k wash away the soil,^l

so you destroy a person’s hope.^m

²⁰You overpower them once for all, and they are gone;ⁿ

you change their countenance and send them away.^o

²¹If their children are honored, they do not know it;

if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it.^p

²²They feel but the pain of their own bodies^q

and mourn only for themselves.^r”