约伯记 14
Chinese Contemporary Bible (Simplified)
14 “人为妇人所生，
一生短暂，充满患难。
2 他如花盛开，转眼凋谢；
如影消逝，无法久留。
3 你还察看这样的世人吗？
还要把我召来受审吗？
4 谁能使污秽产生洁净呢？
没有人能。
5 人的年日已被限定，
你掌管他的岁月，
设定他无法逾越的界限。
6 求你转身，别去管他，
好让他如雇工度完他的日子。
7 树木若被砍下，还有希望，
它仍可重新萌芽，
嫩枝生长不息。
8 虽然树根在土里衰老，
树干在地里死去，
9 但一有水气，
它就会像新栽的树一样发芽长枝。
10 但人一死，就失去力量；
人一咽气，就不知去向。
11 湖水会枯竭，
江河会干涸，
12 人躺下便不再起来，
到诸天不复存在，
他仍不会醒来，
不会从长眠中被唤醒。
13 但愿你把我藏在阴间，
把我藏起来直到你息怒，
定下眷顾我的日期。
14 人若死了，还能复生吗？
我要在劳苦的岁月中等待，
直到我得释放的日子来临。
15 那时你呼唤，我便回应，
你必惦念你亲手所造之物。
16 那时你必鉴察我的脚步，
但不会追究我的罪恶。
17 我的过犯会被封在袋中，
你会遮盖我的罪愆。
18 “高山崩塌，
磐石挪移；
19 流水磨损石头，
急流冲走泥土；
你也这样粉碎人的希望。
20 你永远击败他，使他消逝；
你改变他的容颜，让他离世。
21 他的后人得尊荣，他无从知晓；
他们遭贬抑，他也无法察觉。
22 他只能感受自身的痛苦，
为自己哀哭。”
Job 14
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 14
Everyone Born of Woman . . .[a]
1 “Everyone born of woman
has life that is short and filled with troubles.
2 He blossoms like a flower and soon begins to wither;
as fleeting as a shadow, he does not endure.
3 Is it upon a creature like this that you fix your gaze
and bring him before you to be judged?
4 “Can a man be found who has avoided defilement?
There is no such person.
5 The extent of his life has already been determined,
and the number of his months is known to you;
you have established the limits that he cannot pass.
6 Turn your gaze away from him and leave him alone
so that, like a hired laborer, he may complete his days.
7 “At least for a tree there is always hope:
if it is cut down, it may sprout once again,
and its new shoots may burst with life.
8 Although its roots age in the earth
and its stump dies in the ground,
9 once it scents water it will begin to bud
and put forth branches like a sapling.
10 “But when a man dies, he remains lifeless;
what is his fate once he expires?
11 As occurs when the waters of a lake recede
or a river ceases to flow and runs dry,
12 so men lie down and never rise again;
until the heavens cease to exist, they will not awaken
or be stirred out of their slumber.
Hide Me in the Netherworld[b]
13 “How I wish you would hide me in the netherworld
and shelter me until your wrath has subsided
while designating a time to call me to mind.
14 If one who dies were permitted to live once again,
I would willingly endure all the days of my service
waiting for my relief to arrive.
15 You would call and I would answer you;
you would long to see once again the creature you have made.
16 You would count my every step
but not watch for any evidence of sin in me.
17 You would store up all my transgressions in a bag,
and you would cover over my guilt.
18 “But as a mountain eventually falls
and a rock is removed from its place,
19 as the waters wear away the stones
and cloudbursts wash away the soil,
so you destroy the hope of man.
20 You crush him once for all and he disappears;
you alter his appearance and send him away.
21 If his sons are honored, he is unaware of it;
if they are disgraced, he does not know it.
22 He is cognizant only of the pains his flesh endures,
and he grieves for no one except himself.”
Footnotes
- Job 14:1 Thoroughly unclean, humans cannot attain true purity, i.e., moral perfection. This wretchedness is precisely their excuse before God. And if the universe can be shaken and then renewed, for humans there is no revival; they remain buried in death forever. Survival in the subterranean netherworld is nothing more than a diminished existence. Human beings thus hasten toward their end without hope. What reason is there for God to pursue them?
- Job 14:13 An astounding proposition is put forth: Job desires to descend to the netherworld as in a provisional hiding place or refuge (Ps 139:7-12; Isa 26:20) to escape the divine wrath and wait there for the Lord to remember the creature [he has] made and grant him forgiveness. Job dreams of immortality and suffers because he no longer enjoys the friendship of his God.
Chinese Contemporary Bible Copyright © 1979, 2005, 2007, 2011 by Biblica® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
