Job 14:1-17

English Standard Version

Job Continues: Death Comes Soon to All

14 “Man who is ^(A)born of a woman
    is ^(B)few of days and ^(C)full of trouble.
²He comes out like ^(D)a flower and ^(E)withers;
    he flees like ^(F)a shadow and continues not.
³And do you ^(G)open your eyes on such a one
    and ^(H)bring me into judgment with you?
⁴Who can bring ^(I)a clean thing out of an unclean?
    There is not one.
⁵Since his ^(J)days are determined,
    and ^(K)the number of his months is with you,
    and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
⁶^(L)look away from him and leave him alone,^[a]
    that he may enjoy, like ^(M)a hired hand, his day.

⁷“For there is hope for a tree,
    if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
    and that its shoots will not cease.
⁸Though its root grow old in the earth,
    and ^(N)its stump die in the soil,
⁹yet at the scent of water it will bud
    and put out ^(O)branches like a young plant.
¹⁰But a man dies and is laid low;
    man breathes his last, and ^(P)where is he?
¹¹^(Q)As waters fail from a lake
    and a river wastes away and dries up,
¹²so a man lies down and rises not again;
    till ^(R)the heavens are no more he will not awake
    or be ^(S)roused out of his sleep.
¹³Oh that you would ^(T)hide me in ^(U)Sheol,
    that you would ^(V)conceal me ^(W)until your wrath be past,
    that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
¹⁴If a man dies, shall he live again?
    All the days of my ^(X)service I would ^(Y)wait,
    till my renewal^[b] should come.
¹⁵You would ^(Z)call, and I would answer you;
    you would long for the ^(AA)work of your hands.
¹⁶For then you would ^(AB)number my steps;
    you would not keep ^(AC)watch over my sin;
¹⁷my transgression would be ^(AD)sealed up in a bag,
    and you would cover over my iniquity.