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14:1  “Everyone born of woman has life that is short and filled with troubles.
14:2  He blossoms like a flower and soon begins to wither; as fleeting as a shadow, he does not endure.
14:3  Is it upon a creature like this that you fix your gaze and bring him before you to be judged?
14:4  “Can a man be found who has avoided defilement? There is no such person.
14:5  The extent of his life has already been determined, and the number of his months is known to you; you have established the limits that he cannot pass.
14:6  Turn your gaze away from him and leave him alone so that, like a hired laborer, he may complete his days.
14:7  “At least for a tree there is always hope: if it is cut down, it may sprout once again, and its new shoots may burst with life.
14:8  Although its roots age in the earth and its stump dies in the ground,
14:9  once it scents water it will begin to bud and put forth branches like a sapling.
14:10  “But when a man dies, he remains lifeless; what is his fate once he expires?
14:11  As occurs when the waters of a lake recede or a river ceases to flow and runs dry,
14:12  so men lie down and never rise again; until the heavens cease to exist, they will not awaken or be stirred out of their slumber.
14:13  “How I wish you would hide me in the netherworld and shelter me until your wrath has subsided while designating a time to call me to mind.
14:14  If one who dies were permitted to live once again, I would willingly endure all the days of my service waiting for my relief to arrive.
14:15  You would call and I would answer you; you would long to see once again the creature you have made.
14:16  You would count my every step but not watch for any evidence of sin in me.
14:17  You would store up all my transgressions in a bag, and you would cover over my guilt.
14:18  “But as a mountain eventually falls and a rock is removed from its place,
14:19  as the waters wear away the stones and cloudbursts wash away the soil, so you destroy the hope of man.
14:20  You crush him once for all and he disappears; you alter his appearance and send him away.
14:21  If his sons are honored, he is unaware of it; if they are disgraced, he does not know it.
14:22  He is cognizant only of the pains his flesh endures, and he grieves for no one except himself.”