⁷ “For there is hope for a tree,
    if it is cut down, that it will sprout again
    and that its shoots will not cease.
⁸ Though its root grows old in the earth
    and its stump dies in the ground,
⁹ yet at the scent of water it will bud
    and put forth branches like a young plant.^(A)
10 But mortals die and are laid low;
    humans expire, and where are they?^(B)
11 As waters fail from a lake
    and a river wastes away and dries up,^(C)
12 so mortals lie down and do not rise again;
    until the heavens are no more, they will not awake
    or be roused out of their sleep.^(D)
13 O that you would hide me in Sheol,
    that you would conceal me until your wrath is past,
    that you would appoint me a set time and remember me!^(E)
14 If mortals die, will they live again?
    All the days of my service I would wait
    until my release should come.^(F)
15 You would call, and I would answer you;
    you would long for the work of your hands.

²³ “O that my words were written down!
    O that they were inscribed in a book!^(A)
24 O that with an iron pen and with lead
    they were engraved on a rock forever!^(B)
25 For I know that my vindicator^[a] lives
    and that in the end he will stand upon the earth;^(C)
26 and after my skin has been destroyed,
    then in my flesh I shall see God,^(D)
27 whom I shall see on my side,
    and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
    My heart faints within me!^(E)