Job 14

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14 <1> "We are all human beings.[32]

Our life is short and full of trouble.

<2> Our life is like a flower.

It grows quickly, and then dies away.

Our life is like a shadow

that is here for a short time, and then it is gone.

<3> God, do you need to keep an eye on something like that,

and bring charges against me in court?

<4> "What does something clean

have in common with something dirty?

Nothing!

<5> Our life is limited.

God, you decide how long we live.

You set the limits for us and nothing can change them.

<6> So God, stop watching us.

Leave us alone.

Let us enjoy our hard life until our time is finished.

<7> "There is hope for a tree.

If it is cut down, it can grow again.

It will keep sending out new branches.

<8> Its roots might grow old in the ground

and its stump die in the dirt,

<9> but with water it will grow again.

It will grow branches like a new plant.

<10> But when a man dies,

he becomes weak and sick, and then he is gone!

<11> You could bring all the water in every ocean

until ever river runs dry, and that dead man

<12> would still never get up!

The skies would all pass away

before he would rise from death.

The skies will all disappear before

anyone wakes up from that sleep!

<13> "I wish you would hide me in my grave.

I wish you would hide me there, until your anger is gone.

Then you could pick a time to remember me.

<14> If a man dies, will he live again?

If so, I would wait my whole tour of duty

for my replacement to come.

<15> God, you would call me,

and I would answer you.

Then I, the one you made,

would be important to you.

<16> You would still watch every step I take,

but you wouldn't remember my sins.

<17> It would be as if you had

sealed my sins in an envelope.

It would be as if you had

covered my guilt with plaster.

<18> "Mountains fall and crumble away.

Large rocks break loose and fall.

<19> Water flowing over stones wears them down.

Floods wash away the soil on the ground.

In the same way, God,

you destroy a man's hope.

<20> You defeat him completely

and then he leaves.

You make him sad

and send him away forever to the place of death.

<21> If his sons are honored, he will never know it.

If his sons do wrong, he will never see it.

<22> He only feels the pain in his body,

and he alone cries for himself."