Job 14

1Humankind, born of woman, is short-lived and sated with trouble,

2Blossoms like a flower and withers,Vanishes like a shadow and does not endure.

3Do You fix Your gaze on such a one?Will You go to law with me?

4Who can produce a pure thing out of an impure one? No one!

5Their days are determined;You know the number of months;You have set them limits that they cannot pass.

6Turn away from them, that they may be at easeUntil, like a hireling, they finish out their day.

7There is hope for a tree;If it is cut down it will renew itself;Its shoots will not cease.

8If its roots are old in the earth,And its stump dies in the ground,

9At the scent of water it will budAnd produce branches like a sapling.

10But people languish and die;Humans expire; where are they?

11The waters of the sea fail,And the river dries up and is parched.

12So each of us lies down never to rise—And will awake only when the heavens are no more,Only then be aroused from sleep.

13O that You would hide me in Sheol,Conceal me until Your anger passes,Set me a fixed time to attend to me.

14Can someone who dies live again?All the time of my service I waitUntil my replacement comes.

15You would call and I would answer You;You would set Your heart on Your handiwork.

16Then You would not count my steps,Or keep watch over my sin.

17My transgression would be sealed up in a pouch;You would coat over my iniquity.

18Mountains collapse and crumble;Rocks are dislodged from their place.

19Water wears away stone;Torrents wash away earth;So you destroy a mortal’s hope,

20You overpower him forever and he perishes;You alter his visage and dispatch him.

21His children attain honor and he does not know it;They are humbled and he is not aware of it.

22He feels only the pain of his flesh,And his spirit mourns in him.