1“Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. (Ge 47:9; Job 5:7; Job 10:20; Job 15:14; Job 16:22; Job 25:4; Ps 39:5; Ps 89:47; Mt 11:11)2He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not. (Job 8:9; Job 17:7; Ps 37:2; Ps 90:6; Ps 103:15; Ps 109:23; Isa 40:6; Jas 1:10; 1Pe 1:24)3And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you? (Job 22:4; Ps 8:4; Ps 143:2; Ps 144:3)4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one. (Job 15:14; Ps 51:5; Joh 3:6)5Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass, (Job 7:1; Job 21:21; Ps 39:4)6look away from him and leave him alone,[1] that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day. (Job 7:1; Job 7:19)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.8Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil, (Isa 11:1)9yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant. (Job 29:19)10But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he? (Job 29:7)11As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up, (Isa 19:5)12so a man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep. (De 11:21; Ps 72:5; Ps 89:29; Mt 5:18; Joh 11:11)13Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me! (Job 21:13; Ps 27:5; Ps 31:20; Isa 26:20)14If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal[2] should come. (Job 7:1; Job 13:15)15You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands. (Job 10:3; Job 13:22)16For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin; (Job 10:6; Job 31:4; Job 34:21)17my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity. (De 32:34; Ho 13:12)18“But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place; (Job 18:4; Isa 34:4)19the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of man.20You prevail forever against him, and he passes; you change his countenance, and send him away.21His sons come to honor, and he does not know it; they are brought low, and he perceives it not. (Ec 9:5)22He feels only the pain of his own body, and he mourns only for himself.”