14 “A mortal, born of woman, few of days and full of trouble,^(A)
2     comes up like a flower and withers,
    flees like a shadow and does not last.^(B)
3 Do you fix your eyes on such a one?
    Do you bring me into judgment with you?^(C)
4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
    No one can.^(D)
5 Since their days are determined,
    and the number of their months is known to you,
    and you have appointed the bounds that they cannot pass,^(E)
6 look away from them and desist,^[a]
    that they may enjoy, like laborers, their days.^(F)

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.^(G)
10 But mortals die and are laid low;
    humans expire, and where are they?^(H)
11 As waters fail from a lake
    and a river wastes away and dries up,^(I)
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.^(J)
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!^(K)
14 If mortals die, will they live again?
    All the days of my service I would wait
    until my release should come.^(L)
15 You would call, and I would answer you;
    you would long for the work of your hands.
¹⁶ For then you would not^[b] number my steps;
    you would not keep watch over my sin;^(M)
17 my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
    and you would cover over my iniquity.^(N)

¹⁸ “But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
    and the rock is removed from its place;^(O)
19 the waters wear away the stones;
    the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
    so you destroy the hope of mortals.
²⁰ You prevail forever against them, and they pass away;
    you change their countenance and send them away.^(P)
21 Their children come to honor, and they do not know it;
    they are brought low, and it goes unnoticed.^(Q)
22 They feel only the pain of their own bodies
    and mourn only for themselves.”

² “Should the wise answer with windy knowledge
    and fill themselves with the east wind?^(R)
3 Should they argue in unprofitable talk
    or in words that can do no good?
⁴ But you are doing away with the fear of God
    and hindering meditation before God.
⁵ For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
    and you choose the tongue of the crafty.^(S)
6 Your own mouth condemns you, not I;
    your own lips testify against you.^(T)

⁷ “Are you the firstborn of the human race?
    Were you brought forth before the hills?^(U)
8 Have you listened in the council of God?
    And do you limit wisdom to yourself?^(V)
9 What do you know that we do not know?
    What do you understand that is not clear to us?^(W)
10 The gray-haired and the aged are on our side,
    those older than your father.^(X)
11 Are the consolations of God too small for you
    or the word that deals gently with you?^(Y)
12 Why does your heart carry you away,
    and why do your eyes flash,^[c]
13 so that you turn your spirit against God,
    and let such words go out of your mouth?^(Z)
14 What are mortals, that they can be clean?
    Or those born of woman, that they can be righteous?^(AA)
15 God puts no trust even in his holy ones,
    and the heavens are not clean in his sight;^(AB)
16 how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
    one who drinks iniquity like water!^(AC)

¹⁷ “I will show you; listen to me;
    what I have seen I will declare—
¹⁸ what sages have told
    and their ancestors have not hidden,^(AD)
19 to whom alone the land was given,
    and no stranger passed among them.
²⁰ The wicked writhe in pain all their days,
    through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.^(AE)
21 Terrifying sounds are in their ears;
    in prosperity the destroyer will come upon them.^(AF)
22 They despair of returning from darkness,
    and they are destined for the sword.^(AG)
23 They wander abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
    They know that a day of darkness is ready at hand;^(AH)
24 distress and anguish terrify them;
    they prevail against them like a king prepared for battle.
²⁵ Because they stretched out their hands against God
    and bid defiance to the Almighty,^[d](AI)
26 running stubbornly against him
    with a thickly bossed shield;
²⁷ because they have covered their faces with their fat
    and gathered fat upon their loins,^(AJ)
28 they will live in desolate cities,
    in houses that no one should inhabit,
    houses destined to become heaps of ruins;
²⁹ they will not be rich, and their wealth will not endure,
    nor will they strike root in the earth;^[e](AK)
30 they will not escape from darkness;
    the flame will dry up their shoots,
    and their blossom^[f] will be swept away by the wind.^(AL)
31 Let them not trust in emptiness, deceiving themselves,
    for emptiness will be their recompense.^(AM)
32 It will be paid in full before their time,
    and their branch will not be green.^(AN)
33 They will shake off their unripe grape, like the vine,
    and cast off their blossoms, like the olive tree.^(AO)
34 For the company of the godless is barren,
    and fire consumes the tents of bribery.^(AP)
35 They conceive mischief and bring forth evil,
    and their belly prepares deceit.”^(AQ)

² “I have heard many such things;
    miserable comforters are you all.
³ Have windy words no limit?
    Or what provokes you that you keep on talking?^(AR)
4 I also could talk as you do,
    if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
    and shake my head at you.^(AS)
5 I could encourage you with my mouth,
    and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

⁶ “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
    and if I refrain, how much of it leaves me?
⁷ Surely now God has worn me out;
    he has^[g] made desolate all my company.^(AT)
8 And he has^[h] shriveled me up,
    which is a witness against me;
my leanness has risen up against me,
    and it testifies to my face.^(AU)
9 He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;
    he has gnashed his teeth at me;
    my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.^(AV)
10 They have gaped at me with their mouths;
    they have struck me insolently on the cheek;
    they mass themselves together against me.^(AW)
11 God gives me up to the evil
    and casts me into the hands of the wicked.^(AX)
12 I was at ease, and he broke me in two;
    he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target;^(AY)
13     his archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys and shows no mercy;
    he pours out my gall on the ground.^(AZ)
14 He bursts upon me again and again;
    he rushes at me like a warrior.^(BA)
15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin
    and have laid my strength in the dust.^(BB)
16 My face is red with weeping,
    and deep darkness is on my eyelids,
¹⁷ though there is no violence in my hands,
    and my prayer is pure.^(BC)

¹⁸ “O earth, do not cover my blood;
    let my outcry find no resting place.^(BD)
19 Even now my witness is in heaven,
    and my advocate is on high.^(BE)
20 My friends scorn me;
    my eye pours out tears to God,
²¹ that he would maintain the right of a mortal with God,
    as^[i] one does for a neighbor.^(BF)
22 For when a few years have come,
    I shall go the way from which I shall not return.^(BG)