Job Laments the Finality of Death

1Man that is borne of a woman, hath but a shorte tyme to lyue, and is full of dyuerse miseries.

2He cometh vp, and falleth awaye like a floure. He flyeth as it were a shadowe, and neuer continueth in one state.

3Thinkest thou it now well done, to open thine eyes vpon soch one, and to brynge me before the in iudgment?

4Who can make it cleane, that commeth of an vncleane thinge? No body.

5The dayes of man are shorte, ye nombre of his monethes are knowne only vnto the. Thou hast apoynted him his boundes, he can not go beyonde them.

6Go from him, that he maye rest a litle: vntill his daye come, which he loketh for, like as an hyrelinge doth.

7Yf a tre be cutt downe, there is some hope yet, that it will sproute and shute forth the braunches againe:

8For though a rote be waxen olde and deed in the grounde, yet whe the stocke

9getteth the sent of water, it will budde, and brynge forth bowes, like as when it was first planted.

10But as for man, when he is deed, perished and consumed awaye, what becommeth of him?

11The floudes when they be dryed vp, & the ryuers when they be emptie, are fylled agayne thorow the flowinge waters of the see:

12but when man slepeth, he ryseth not agayne, vntill the heauen perish: he shal not wake vp ner ryse out of his slepe.

13O that thou woldest kepe me, and hyde me in the hell, vntill thy wrath were stilled: & to appoynte me a tyme, wherin thou mightest remembre me.

14Maye a deed man lyue agayne? All the dayes of this my pilgremage am I lokynge, when my chaunginge shal come.

15Yf thou woldest but call me, I shulde obeie the: only despyse not the worke of thine owne hondes.

16For thou hast nombred all my goynges, yet be not thou to extreme vpon my synnes.

17Thou hast sealed vp myne offences, as it were in a bagg: but be mercifull vnto my wickednesse.

18The mountaynes fall awaye at the last, the rockes are remoued out of their place,

19the waters pearse thorow the very stones by litle and litle, the floudes wasshe awaye the grauell & earth: Euen so destroyest thou the hope of man in like maner.

20Thou preuaylest agaynst him, so that he passeth awaye: thou chaungest his estate, and puttest him from the.

21Whether his children come to worshipe or no, he can not tell: And yf they be men of lowe degre, he knoweth not.

22Whyle he lyueth, his flesh must haue trauayle: and whyle the soule is in him, he must be in sorowe.