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.
⁸ Though its root grow old in the earth,
    and ^(A)its stump die in the soil,
⁹ yet at the scent of water it will bud
    and put out ^(B)branches like a young plant.
¹⁰ But a man dies and is laid low;
    man breathes his last, and ^(C)where is he?
^11 (D)As waters fail from a lake
    and a river wastes away and dries up,
¹² so a man lies down and rises not again;
    till ^(E)the heavens are no more he will not awake
    or be ^(F)roused out of his sleep.

²³ “Oh that my words were written!
    Oh that they were ^(A)inscribed in a book!
²⁴ Oh that with an iron ^(B)pen and lead
    they were engraved in the rock forever!
²⁵ For I ^(C)know that my ^(D)Redeemer lives,
    and at the last he will stand upon the ^(E)earth.^[a]
26 And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
    yet in^[b] my flesh I shall ^(F)see God,
²⁷ whom I shall see for myself,
    and my eyes shall behold, and not ^(G)another.
    My heart ^(H)faints within me!