Job 14

1A human being, born of a woman, is short of days and full of turmoil.

2He springs up like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and does not last.

3Do you really fix your eyes on such a one? Do you bring me into judgment with you?

4Who can bring something clean out of something unclean? No one.

5Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have set limits for him that he cannot pass,

6look away from him and let him rest, until he has finished his day like a hired worker.

7For there is hope for a tree: if it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.

8Though its root grows old in the ground and its stump dies in the soil,

9at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant.

10But a man dies and lies powerless; a human being breathes his last, and where is he?

11As water disappears from a lake, and a river dries up and runs dry,

12so a man lies down and does not rise; until the heavens are no more, people will not wake up or be roused from their sleep.

13Oh, that you would hide me in Sheol, conceal me until your anger has passed, set a fixed time for me, and then remember me!

14If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I would wait until my relief came.

15You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands.

16For then you would count my steps but not keep watch over my sin.

17My transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.

18But as a mountain falls and crumbles away, and a rock is moved from its place,

19as water wears away stones and floods wash away the soil of the earth, so you destroy the hope of a mortal.

20You overpower him once and for all, and he passes away; you change his appearance and send him off.

21His children are honored, and he does not know it; they are brought low, and he does not see it.

22He feels only the pain of his own body and mourns only for himself.”