Chapter 14

¹ For a mortal born of a woman is short lived, and full of ¹wrath. ² Or he falls like a flower that has bloomed; and he departs like a shadow, and cannot continue. ³ Hast thou not taken account even of him, and caused him to enter into judgment before thee? ⁴ For who shall be pure from uncleanness? not even one; ⁵ if even his life should be but one day upon the earth: and his months are numbered by him: thou hast appointed him for a time, and he shall by no means exceed it.

⁶ Depart from him, that he may be quiet, and take pleasure in his life, though as a hireling.

⁷ For there is hope for a tree, even if it should be cut down, that it shall blossom again, and its branch shall not fail. ⁸ For though its root should grow old in the earth, and its stem die in the rock; ⁹ it will blossom from the scent of water, and will produce a crop, as one newly planted. ¹⁰ But a man that has died is utterly gone; and when a mortal has fallen, he is no more. ¹¹ For the sea wastes in length of time, and a river fails and is dried up. ¹² And man that has lain down in death shall certainly not rise again till the heaven ²be dissolved, and they shall not awake from their sleep.

¹³ For oh that thou hadst kept me in the grave, and hadst hidden me until thy wrath should cease, and thou shouldest set me a time in which thou wouldest remember me! ¹⁴ For if a man should die, shall he live again, having accomplished the days of his life? I will wait

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till I ³exist again? ¹⁵ Then shalt thou call, and I will hearken to thee: but do not thou reject the work of thine hands. ¹⁶ But thou hast numbered my devices: and not one of my sins shall escape thee? ¹⁷ An thou hast sealed up my transgressions in a ⁴bag, and marked if I have been guilty of any transgression unawares.

¹⁸ And verily a mountain falling will utterly be destroyed, and a rock shall be worn out of its place. ¹⁹ The waters wear the stones, and waters falling headlong overflow a heap of the earth: and thou destroyest the ⁵hope of man. ²⁰ Thou drivest him to an end, and he is gone: thou settest thy face against him, and sendest him away; ²¹ and though his children be multiplied, he knows it not; and if they be few, he is not aware. ²² But his flesh is in pain, and his soul mourns.