14:1
a human being, born of woman, whose life is short but full of trouble.
14:2
Like a flower, such a one blossoms and withers, fleeting as a shadow, transient.
14:3
And this is the creature on whom you fix your gaze, and bring to judgement before you!
14:4
But will anyone produce the pure from what is impure? No one can!
14:5
Since his days are measured out, since his tale of months depends on you, since you assign him bounds he cannot pass,
14:6
turn your eyes from him, leave him alone, like a hired labourer, to finish his day in peace.
14:7
There is always hope for a tree: when felled, it can start its life again; its shoots continue to sprout.
14:8
Its roots may have grown old in the earth, its stump rotting in the ground,
14:9
but let it scent the water, and it buds, and puts out branches like a plant newly set.
14:10
But a human being? He dies, and dead he remains, breathes his last, and then where is he?
14:11
The waters of the sea will vanish, the rivers stop flowing and run dry:
14:12
a human being, once laid to rest, will never rise again, the heavens will wear out before he wakes up, or before he is roused from his sleep.
14:13
Will no one hide me in Sheol, and shelter me there till your anger is past, fixing a certain day for calling me to mind-
14:14
can the dead come back to life? - day after day of my service, I should be waiting for my relief to come.
14:15
Then you would call, and I should answer, you would want to see once more what you have made.
14:16
Whereas now you count every step I take, you would then stop spying on my sin;
14:17
you would seal up my crime in a bag, and put a cover over my fault.
14:18
Alas! Just as, eventually, the mountain falls down, the rock moves from its place,
14:19
water wears away the stones, the cloudburst erodes the soil; so you destroy whatever hope a person has.
14:20
You crush him once for all, and he is gone; first you disfigure him, then you dismiss him.
14:21
His children may rise to honours -- he does not know it; they may come down in the world -- he does not care.
14:22
He feels no pangs, except for his own body, makes no lament, except for his own self.
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