1. Man born of womanis short-lived and full of trouble,
2. Like a flower that springs up and fades,swift as a shadow that does not abide.
3. Upon such a one will you set your eyes,bringing me into judgment before you?
4. Can anyone make the unclean clean?No one can.
5. Since his days are determined—you know the number of his months;you have fixed the limit which he cannot pass—
6. Look away from him and let him be,while, like a hireling, he completes his day.
7. For a tree there is hope;if it is cut down, it will sprout again,its tender shoots will not cease.
8. Even though its root grow old in the earthand its stump die in the dust,
9. Yet at the first whiff of water it sproutsand puts forth branches like a young plant.
10. But when a man dies, all vigor leaves him;when a mortal expires, where then is he?
11. As when the waters of a lake fail,or a stream shrivels and dries up,
12. So mortals lie down, never to rise.Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake,nor be roused out of their sleep.
13. Oh, that you would hide me in Sheol,shelter me till your wrath is past,fix a time to remember me!
14. If a man were to die, and live again,all the days of my drudgery I would waitfor my relief to come.