Gióp 14

A short life, full of trouble

¹A human being, born of a woman, \q lives few days, and those days are full of trouble. ²They spring up like a flower and wither; \q they slip away like a shadow and do not last. ³Do you really fix your eyes on such a one? \q Will you bring me to trial before you? ⁴Who can bring what is clean out of what is unclean? \q No one!^{a 5}Since their days are fixed, \q and the number of their months is in your hands, \q since you have set limits that they cannot cross, ⁶then look away from them and let them rest, \q until, like a hired worker, they finish their day.^{b 7}For a tree there is hope: \q if it is cut down, it will sprout again, \q and its new shoots will not fail. ⁸Even if its root grows old in the ground \q and its stump dies in the dust, ⁹at the first scent of water it will bud \q and put out shoots like a young plant. ¹⁰But a mortal dies and lies powerless; \q a human being breathes their last, and where are they? ¹¹As water vanishes from a lake \q and a river dries up and is parched, ¹²so a person lies down and does not rise again; \q until the heavens are gone, the dead will not awake \q or be roused from their sleep. ¹³If only you would hide me in Sheol \q and keep me out of sight until your anger has passed, \q then set a time for me and remember me! ¹⁴If a mortal dies, will they live again? \q All the days of my hard service I would wait \q until my release came. ¹⁵You would call, and I would answer you; \q you would long for the creature your hands have made. ¹⁶Then you would count my steps \q but would not keep watch over my sin.^{c 17}My offenses would be sealed up in a bag, \q and you would cover over my guilt. ¹⁸But as a mountain falls and crumbles away, \q and a rock is moved from its place, ¹⁹as water wears away stones \q and floods wash away the soil of the land, \q so you destroy the hope of mortals. ²⁰You overpower them once for all, and they are gone; \q you change their face in death and send them away. ²¹Their children may rise to honor, but they never know it; \q their children may sink low, but they do not see it. ²²They feel only the pain of their own body; \q they mourn only for themselves.^d