^1. "Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.

^2. He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.

^3. Do you fix your eye on such a one? Will you bring him [1] before you for judgment?

^4. Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one!

^5. Man's days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.

^6. So 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.

^8. Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil,

^9. yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant.

^10. But man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more.

^11. As water disappears from the sea or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,

^12. so 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 [2] and conceal me till your anger has passed! If only you would set me a time and then remember me!

^14. If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal [3] to come.

^15. You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made.

^16. Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin.

^17. My 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,

^19. as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy man's hope.

^20. You overpower him once for all, and he is gone; you change his countenance and send him away.

^21. If his sons are honored, he does not know it; if they are brought low, he does not see it.

^22. He feels but the pain of his own body and mourns only for himself."