1. MAN WHO is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.
2. He comes forth like a flower and withers; he flees also like a shadow and continues not.
3. And [Lord] do You open Your eyes upon such a one, and bring me into judgment with You?
4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one! [Isa. 1:18; I John 1:7.]
5. Since a man's days are already determined, and the number of his months is wholly in Your control, and he cannot pass the bounds of his allotted time–
6. [O God] turn from him [and cease to watch him so pitilessly]; let him rest until he has accomplished as does a hireling the appointed time for his day.
7. For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again and that the tender shoots of it will not cease. [But there is no such hope for man.]
8. Though its roots grow old in the earth and its stock dies in the ground,
9. Yet through the scent [and breathing] of water [the stump of the tree] will bud and bring forth boughs like a young plant.
10. But [the brave, strong] man must die and lie prostrate; yes, man breathes his last, and where is he?