Job 14
Open Word Bible
A human being, born of a woman, lives few days, and those days are full of trouble. They spring up like a flower and wither; they slip away like a shadow and do not last. Do you really fix your eyes on such a one? Will you bring me to trial before you? Who can bring what is clean out of what is unclean? No one! Since their days are fixed, and the number of their months is in your hands, since you have set limits that they cannot cross, then look away from them and let them rest, until, like a hired worker, they finish their day. For a tree there is hope: if it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. Even if its root grows old in the ground and its stump dies in the dust, at the first scent of water it will bud and put out shoots like a young plant. But a mortal dies and lies powerless; a human being breathes their last, and where are they? As water vanishes from a lake and a river dries up and is parched, so a person lies down and does not rise again; until the heavens are gone, the dead will not awake or be roused from their sleep. If only you would hide me in Sheol and keep me out of sight until your anger has passed, then set a time for me and remember me! If a mortal dies, will they live again? All the days of my hard service I would wait until my release came. You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the creature your hands have made. Then you would count my steps but would not keep watch over my sin. My offenses would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my guilt. But as a mountain falls and crumbles away, and a rock is moved from its place, as water wears away stones and floods wash away the soil of the land, so you destroy the hope of mortals. You overpower them once for all, and they are gone; you change their face in death and send them away. Their children may rise to honor, but they never know it; their children may sink low, but they do not see it. They feel only the pain of their own body; they mourn only for themselves.
Job
Open the interactive reader to switch translations, adjust type, and mark verses — or browse verses by topic.
Scripture quotations are from the Open Word Bible, which is in the public domain.