| 1 Man born of woman has a short life full of sorrow. | |
| 2 Like a flower he blossoms and withers; transient and fleeting as a shadow. | |
| 2 Like a flower he blossoms and withers; transient and fleeting as a shadow. | |
| 3 Is he the one you look on and bring before you for judgment? | |
| 4 Who can bring the clean from the unclean? No one! | |
| 5 Since his days are measured and you have decreed the number of his months, set him bounds he cannot pass, | |
| 6 then leave him alone. Turn away from him till he completes his day like a hireling. | |
| 7 There is hope for a tree: if cut down it will sprout again, its new shoots will still appear. | |
| 8 Though its roots grow old in the ground and its stump withers in the soil, | |
| 9 at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a young plant. | |
| 10 But when man is cut down, he comes undone; he breathes his last – where will he be? | |
| 11 The waters of the sea may disappear, rivers drain away, | |
| 12 but the one who lies down will not rise again; the heavens will vanish before he wakes, before he rises from his sleep. | |
| 13 If only you would hide me in the grave and shelter me till your wrath is past! If only you would set a time for me and then remember me! | |
| 14 If you die, will you live again? All the days of my service I would wait for my release. | |
| 15 You would call and I would answer; you would long for the work of your hands again. | |
| 16 Now you watch my every step, but then you would stop counting my sins. | |
| 17 My offenses would be sealed in a bag, and you would do away with my guilt. | |
| 18 But as mountains erode and crumble, as rock is moved from its place, | |
| 19 as waters wear away stones and floods wash away the soil, so you destroy the hope of man. | |
| 20 You crush him once for all, and he is gone; you change his appearance and send him away. | |
| 21 If his children are honored, he does not know it; if brought low, he does not see it. | |
| 22 Only the pain of his own body does he feel; only for himself does he mourn. | |
| 28 He falls apart like worm-eaten wood, like cloth devoured by the moths. | |
| 28 He falls apart like worm-eaten wood, like cloth devoured by the moths. | |
