Job 14

¹Man, born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries.

²Who cometh forth like a flower, and is destroyed, and fleeth as a shadow, and never continueth in the same state.

³And dost thou think it meet to open thy eyes upon such an one, and to bring him into judgment with thee?

⁴Who can make him clean that is conceived of unclean seed? Is it not thou who only art?

⁵The days of man are short, and the number of his months is with thee: thou hast appointed his bounds which cannot be passed.

⁶Depart a little from him, that he may rest, until his wished-for day come, as that of the hireling.

⁷A tree hath hope. If it be cut, it groweth green again, and the boughs thereof sprout.

⁸If its root be old in the earth, and its stock be dead in the dust:

⁹At the scent of water, it shall spring, and bring forth leaves, as when it was first planted.

¹⁰But man when he shall be dead, and stripped and consumed, I pray you where is he?

¹¹As if the waters should depart out of the sea, and an emptied river should be dried up:

¹²So man when he is fallen asleep shall not rise again; till the heavens be broken, he shall not awake, nor rise up out of his sleep.

¹³Who will grant me this, that thou mayest protect me in hell, and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when thou wilt remember me?

¹⁴Shall man that is dead, thinkest thou, live again? All the days in which I am now in warfare, I expect until my change come.

¹⁵Thou shalt call me, and I will answer thee: to the work of thy hands thou shalt reach out thy right hand.

¹⁶Thou indeed hast numbered my steps: but spare my sins.

¹⁷Thou hast sealed up my offences as it were in a bag, but hast cured my iniquity.

¹⁸A mountain falling cometh to nought: and a rock is removed out of its place.

¹⁹Waters wear away the stones: and with inundation the ground by little and little is washed away. So in like manner thou shalt destroy man.

²⁰Thou hast strengthened him for a little while, that he may pass away for ever: thou shalt change his face, and shalt send him away.

²¹Whether his children come to honour or dishonour, he shall not understand.

²²But yet his flesh, while he shall live, shall have pain: and his soul shall mourn over him.