1   Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
2   He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down: he flees also as a shadow, and continues not.
3   And do you open your eyes upon such a one, and bring me into judgment with you?
4   Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? no one.
5   Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with you, you have appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
6   Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.
7   For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that  it  will  sprout  again,  and  that  the  tender shoots thereof 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 bring forth branches like a plant.
10   But man dies, and wastes away: yea, man expires, and where is he?
11   As the waters fail from the sea, and the river decays and dries up:
12   So man lies down, and rises not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
13   O that you would hide me in hell, that you would conceal me, until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14   If a man dies, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change comes.
15   You shall call, and I will answer you: you will have a desire to the work of your hands.
16   For now you number my steps: do not watch over my sin.
17   My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and you sew up my iniquity.
18   And surely the mountain falling, comes to nothing, and the rock is removed out of its place.
19   The waters wear the stones: you wash away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and you destroy the hope of man.
20   You prevail forever against him, and he passes: you change his countenance, and send him away.
21   His sons come to honor, and he knows it not; and they are brought low, but he perceives it not of them.
22   But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.