[1] “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.
[2] He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.
[3] And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you?
[4] Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.
[5] Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
[6] look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.
[7] “For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.
[8] Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil,
[9] yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant.
[10] But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he?
[11] As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up,
[12] so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.
[13] Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
[14] If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come.
[15] You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands.
[16] For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin;
[17] my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.
[18] “But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place;
[19] the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of man.
[20] You prevail forever against him, and he passes; you change his countenance, and send him away.
[21] His sons come to honor, and he does not know it; they are brought low, and he perceives it not.
[22] He feels only the pain of his own body, and he mourns only for himself.”