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Job continues to speak

14 Everyone that a woman gives birth to lives only for a short time.
    The days of his life are full of trouble.
He is like a flower that grows
    and then it soon dies.
His life quickly disappears like a shadow.
I am only a human like that,
    so why do you watch me so carefully?
Why do you want to bring me into a court to judge me?
People are not clean and pure.
    Nobody can change them to become pure.
You have decided how long people should live.
    You control the number of months that each person will live.
    Nobody can live any longer than that.
So do not watch us! Leave us alone!
We must work for the time that you have decided.
    Please leave us to work in peace.

If someone cuts down a tree,
    the tree may not die.
    New branches may grow from it.
Its roots in the ground may be old.
    The part of the tree that remains may be nearly dead.
But if only a little water comes near to it,
    it will start to grow again.
It will make new branches,
    like a young plant.
10 But when people lose their strength and they die,
    that is the end.
    After they die, where do they go?
11 When the water disappears from a lake or a river,
    they become dry.
12 It is the same with people when they die.
    They will never rise to live again.
As long as the sky remains above the earth,
    they will continue to sleep in death.

13 Please hide me in the place where dead people go!
    Hide me there until you are no longer angry.
Decide how long I must be there,
    and then remember me again!
14 If a man dies, will he live again?
    If I knew that, I would suffer patiently.
    I would wait until my troubles have finished.
15 You would call me and I would answer you.
You would want to see me again,
    because your own hands created me.
16 You would watch me carefully,
    but you would not make a note of my sins.
17 You would forgive me for my sins.
    You would hide them away.

18 But mountains fall down and they break into pieces,
    Rocks fall down from their places.
19 Stones become sand when water pours over them.
    Floods wash away soil.
In the same way, you remove hope from a person's life.
20 Finally, you bring his life to an end.
    He leaves this world.
You change his face in death
    and you send him away.
21 If his sons become famous,
    he does not know about it.
If they become ashamed,
    he does not know that either.
22 A dead person thinks only about himself.
    He feels his own pain and he is very sad.’

14 Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.

He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

And doth thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.

Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;

Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;

Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.

10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:

12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.

15 Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

16 For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?

17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.

18 And surely the mountains falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.

19 The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.

20 Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.

21 His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.

22 But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.