14:1 Man born of woman is short-lived and full of trouble,
14:2 Like a flower that springs up and fades, swift as a shadow that does not abide.
14:3 Upon such a one will you set your eyes, bringing me into judgment before you?
14:4 Can anyone make the unclean clean? No one can.
14:5 Since his days are determined— you know the number of his months; you have fixed the limit which he cannot pass—
14:6 Look away from him and let him be, while, like a hireling, he completes his day.
14:7 For a tree there is hope; if it is cut down, it will sprout again, its tender shoots will not cease.
14:8 Even though its root grow old in the earth and its stump die in the dust,
14:9 Yet at the first whiff of water it sprouts and puts forth branches like a young plant.
14:10 But when a man dies, all vigor leaves him; when a mortal expires, where then is he?
14:11 As when the waters of a lake fail, or a stream shrivels and dries up,
14:12 So mortals lie down, never to rise. Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.
14:13 Oh, that you would hide me in Sheol, shelter me till your wrath is past, fix a time to remember me!
14:14 If a man were to die, and live again, all the days of my drudgery I would wait for my relief to come.
14:15 You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands.
14:16 Surely then you would count my steps, and not keep watch for sin in me.
14:17 My misdeeds would be sealed up in a pouch, and you would cover over my guilt.
14:18 Mountains fall and crumble, rocks move from their place,
14:19 And water wears away stone, and floods wash away the soil of the land— so you destroy the hope of mortals!
14:20 You prevail once for all against them and they pass on; you dismiss them with changed appearance.
14:21 If their children are honored, they are not aware of it; or if disgraced, they do not know about them.
14:22 Only for themselves, their pain; only for themselves, their mourning.
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