Job Continues: Death Comes Soon to All
“Man who is aborn of a woman
is bfew of days and cfull of trouble.
2 He comes out like aa flower and bwithers;
he flees like ca shadow and continues not.
3 And do you aopen your eyes on such a one
and bbring me into judgment with you?
4 Who can bring aa clean thing out of an unclean?
There is not one.
5 Since his adays are determined,
and bthe number of his months is with you,
and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
6 alook away from him and leave him alone,
that he may enjoy, like ba 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 aits stump die in the soil,
9 yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put out abranches like a young plant.
10 But a man dies and is laid low;
man breathes his last, and awhere is he?
11 aAs waters fail from a lake
and a river wastes away and dries up,
12 so a man lies down and rises not again;
till athe heavens are no more he will not awake
or be broused out of his sleep.
13 Oh that you would ahide me in bSheol,
that you would aconceal me cuntil 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 aservice I would bwait,
till my renewal should come.
15 You would acall, and I would answer you;
you would long for the bwork of your hands.
16 For then you would anumber my steps;
you would not keep bwatch over my sin;
17 my transgression would be asealed up in a bag,
and you would cover over my iniquity.
18 “But the mountain falls and acrumbles away,
and bthe 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 adoes 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.”