Job 14:7-17

Living Bible

⁷ “For there is hope for a tree—if it’s cut down, it sprouts again and grows tender, new branches. ^8-9 Though its roots have grown old in the earth, and its stump decays, it may sprout and bud again at the touch of water, like a new seedling. ¹⁰ But when a man dies and is buried, where does his spirit go? ^11-12 As water evaporates from a lake, as a river disappears in drought, so a man lies down for the last time and does not rise again until the heavens are no more; he shall not awaken, nor be roused from his sleep. ¹³ Oh, that you would hide me with the dead and forget me there until your anger ends; but mark your calendar to think of me again!

¹⁴ “If a man dies, shall he live again? This thought gives me hope, so that in all my anguish I eagerly await sweet death! ¹⁵ You would call and I would come, and you would reward all I do. ¹⁶ But now, instead, you give me so few steps upon the stage of life and notice every mistake I make. ¹⁷ You bundle them all together as evidence against me.