Job 14
Job Continues: Death Comes Soon to All
[1] “Man who is born of a woman
is few of days and full of trouble.
[2] He comes out like a flower and withers;
he flees like a shadow and continues not.
[3] And do you open your eyes on such a one
and bring me into judgment with you?
[4] Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
There is not one.
[5] Since his days are determined,
and the number of his months is with you,
and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
[6] look away from him and leave him alone,
that he may enjoy, like a 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 its stump die in the soil,
[9] yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put out branches like a young plant.
[10] But a man dies and is laid low;
man breathes his last, and where is he?
[11] As waters fail from a lake
and a river wastes away and dries up,
[12] so a man lies down and rises not again;
till the heavens are no more he will not awake
or be roused out of his sleep.
[13] Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
that you would conceal me until 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 service I would wait,
till my renewal should come.
[15] You would call, and I would answer you;
you would long for the work of your hands.
[16] For then you would number my steps;
you would not keep watch over my sin;
[17] my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
and you would cover over my iniquity.
[18] “But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
and the 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 does 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.” (ESV)
