Job Laments the Finality of Death

1For a mortal born of a woman is short lived, and full of wrath.

2Or he falls like a flower that has bloomed; and he departs like a shadow, and cannot continue.

3Hast thou not taken account even of him, and caused him to enter into judgment before thee?

4For who shall be pure from uncleanness? not even one;

5if even his life should be but one day upon the earth: and his months are numbered by him: thou hast appointed him for a time, and he shall by no means exceed it.

6Depart from him, that he may be quiet, and take pleasure in his life, though as a hireling.

7For there is hope for a tree, even if it should be cut down, that it shall blossom again, and its branch shall not fail.

8For though its root should grow old in the earth, and its stem die in the rock;

9it will blossom from the scent of water, and will produce a crop, as one newly planted.

10But a man that has died is utterly gone; and when a mortal has fallen, he is no more.

11For the sea wastes in length of time, and a river fails and is dried up.

12And man that has lain down in death shall certainly not rise again till the heaven be dissolved, and they shall not awake from their sleep.

13For oh that thou hadst kept me in the grave, and hadst hidden me until thy wrath should cease, and thou shouldest set me a time in which thou wouldest remember me!

14For if a man should die, shall he live again, having accomplished the days of his life? I will wait till I exist again?

15Then shalt thou call, and I will hearken to thee: but do not thou reject the work of thine hands.

16But thou hast numbered my devices: and not one of my sins shall escape thee?

17An thou hast sealed up my transgressions in a bag, and marked if I have been guilty of any transgression unawares.

18And verily a mountain falling will utterly be destroyed, and a rock shall be worn out of its place.

19The waters wear the stones, and waters falling headlong overflow a heap of the earth: and thou destroyest the hope of man.

20Thou drivest him to an end, and he is gone: thou settest thy face against him, and sendest him away;

21and though his children be multiplied, he knows it not; and if they be few, he is not aware.

22But his flesh is in pain, and his soul mourns.