The Shared Word Translation · Study & Discuss
Job 14
Human Frailty and Hope
A human being, born of woman,
is short of days and full of trouble.
Like a flower the human comes forth and withers;
they flee like a shadow and do not endure.
And do you fix your gaze on such a one,
and bring me into judgment with you?
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
No one.
Since their days are determined,
and the number of their months is with you,
and you have appointed their limit that they cannot pass,
look away from them and let them alone,
that they may enjoy, like a hired worker, their day.
For there is hope for a tree:
if it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its shoots will not cease.
Though its root grows old in the earth,
and its stump dies in the ground,
yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put forth branches like a young plant.
But a human dies and is laid low;
a person breathes their last—and where are they?
As waters fail from a lake,
and a river wastes away and dries up,
so a human lies down and does not rise;
until the heavens are no more they will not awake
or be roused out of their sleep.
Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
that you would conceal me until your wrath has passed,
that you would appoint me a set time and remember me!
If a human dies, will they live again?
All the days of my service I would wait,
until my release should come.
You would call, and I would answer you;
you would long for the work of your hands.
For then you would count my steps;
you would not keep watch over my sin.
My rebellion would be sealed up in a bag,
and you would cover over my iniquity.
But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
and the rock is moved from its place;
water wears away stones;
torrents wash away the dust of the earth—
so you destroy the hope of mortals.
You prevail forever against them, and they pass away;
you change their countenance, and send them away.
Their children come to honor, and they do not know it;
they are brought low, and they do not perceive it.
They feel only the pain of their own body,
and their own being mourns.