【Job】Chapter 14 << Last Chapter Next Chapter >>

14:1 Man born of woman is short-lived and full of trouble,

14:2 Like a flower that springs up and fades, swift as a shadow that does not abide.

14:3 Upon such a one will you cast your eyes so as to bring him into judgment before you,

14:1 3:28Though he wears out like a leather bottle, like a garment that the moth has consumed?

14:4 Can a man be found who is clean of defilement? There is none,

14:5 however short his days. You know the number of his months; you have fixed the limit which he cannot pass.

14:6 Look away from him and let him be, while, like a hireling, he completes his day.

14:7 For a tree there is hope, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again and that its tender shoots will not cease.

14:8 Even though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the dust,

14:9 Yet at the first whiff of water it may flourish again and put forth branches like a young plant.

14:10 But when a man dies, all vigor leaves him; when man expires, where then is he?

14:11 As when the waters of a lake fail, or a stream grows dry and parches,

14:12 So men lie down and rise not again. Till the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.

14:13 Oh, that you would hide me in the nether world and keep me sheltered till your wrath is past; would fix a time for me, and then remember me!

14:14 When a man has died, were he to live again, all the days of my drudgery I would wait, until my relief should come.

14:15 You would call, and I would answer you; you would esteem the work of your hands.

14:16 Surely then you would count my steps, and not keep watch for sin in me.

14:17 My misdeeds would be sealed up in a pouch, and you would cover over my guilt.

14:18 But as a mountain falls at last and its rock is moved from its place,

14:19 As waters wear away the stones and floods wash away the soil of the land, so you destroy the hope of man.

14:20 You prevail once for all against him and he passes on; with changed appearance you send him away.

14:21 If his sons are honored, he is not aware of it; if they are in disgrace, he does not know about them.

Fr: To: