1“Man born of woman

is of few days and full of trouble.

2He springs up like a flower and withers away;

like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.

3Do you fix your eye on such a one?

Will you bring him^a before you for judgment?

4Who can bring what is pure from the impure?

No one!

5Man’s days are determined;

you have decreed the number of his months

and have set limits he cannot exceed.

6So look away from him and let him alone,

till he has put in his time like a hired man.

7“At least there is hope for a tree:

If it is cut down, it will sprout again,

and its new shoots will not fail.

8Its roots may grow old in the ground

and its stump die in the soil,

9yet at the scent of water it will bud

and put forth shoots like a plant.

10But man dies and is laid low;

he breathes his last and is no more.

11As water disappears from the sea

or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,

12so man lies down and does not rise;

till the heavens are no more, men will not awake

or be roused from their sleep.

13“If only you would hide me in the grave^b

and conceal me till your anger has passed!

If only you would set me a time

and then remember me!

14If a man dies, will he live again?

All the days of my hard service

I will wait for my renewal^c to come.

15You will call and I will answer you;

you will long for the creature your hands have made.

16Surely then you will count my steps

but not keep track of my sin.

17My offenses will be sealed up in a bag;

you will cover over my sin.

18“But as a mountain erodes and crumbles

and as a rock is moved from its place,

19as water wears away stones

and torrents wash away the soil,

so you destroy man’s hope.

20You overpower him once for all, and he is gone;

you change his countenance and send him away.

21If his sons are honored, he does not know it;

if they are brought low, he does not see it.

22He feels but the pain of his own body

and mourns only for himself.”