14:1  "Man born of woman
is of few days and full of trouble.

14:2  He springs up like a flower and withers away;
like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.

14:3  Do you fix your eye on such a one?
Will you bring him before you for judgment?

14:4  Who can bring what is pure from the impure?
No one!

14:5  Man's days are determined;
you have decreed the number of his months
and have set limits he cannot exceed.

14:6  So look away from him and let him alone,
till he has put in his time like a hired man.

14:7  "At least there is hope for a tree:
If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its new shoots will not fail.

14:8  Its roots may grow old in the ground
and its stump die in the soil,

14:9  yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put forth shoots like a plant.

14:10  But man dies and is laid low;
he breathes his last and is no more.

14:11  As water disappears from the sea
or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,

14:12  so man lies down and does not rise;
till the heavens are no more, men will not awake
or be roused from their sleep.

14:13  "If only you would hide me in the grave
and conceal me till your anger has passed!
If only you would set me a time
and then remember me!

14:14  If a man dies, will he live again?
All the days of my hard service
I will wait for my renewal to come.

14:15  You will call and I will answer you;
you will long for the creature your hands have made.

14:16  Surely then you will count my steps
but not keep track of my sin.

14:17  My offenses will be sealed up in a bag;
you will cover over my sin.

14:18  "But as a mountain erodes and crumbles
and as a rock is moved from its place,

14:19  as water wears away stones
and torrents wash away the soil,
so you destroy man's hope.

14:20  You overpower him once for all, and he is gone;
you change his countenance and send him away.

14:21  If his sons are honored, he does not know it;
if they are brought low, he does not see it.

14:22  He feels but the pain of his own body
and mourns only for himself."