15. [Then] You would call and I would answer You; You would yearn for [me] the work of Your hands.
16. But now You number each of my steps and take note of my every sin.
17. My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and You glue up my iniquity [to preserve it in full for the day of reckoning].
18. But as a mountain, if it falls, crumbles to nothing, and as the rock is removed out of its place,
19. As waters wear away the stones and as floods wash away the soil of the earth, so You [O Lord] destroy the hope of man.
20. You prevail forever against him, and he passes on; You change his appearance [in death] and send him away [from the presence of the living].
21. His sons come to honor, and he knows it not; they are brought low, and he perceives it not.
22. But his body [lamenting its decay in the grave] shall grieve over him, and his soul shall mourn [over the body of clay which it once enlivened].