1 All of us are born of women,have few days, and are full of turmoil.
2 Like a flower, we bloom, then wither,flee like a shadow, and don’t last.(
3 Yes, you open your eyes on this one;you bring me into trial against you.)
4 Who can make pure from impure?Nobody.
5 If our days are fixed, the number of our months with you,you set a statute and we can’t exceed it.
6 Look away from us that we may rest,until we are satisfied like a worker at day’s end.
7 Indeed there is hope for a tree.If it’s cut down and still sproutingand its shoots don’t fail,
8 if its roots age in the groundand its stump dies in the dust,
9 at the scent of water, it will budand produce sprouts like a plant.
10 But a human dies and lies there;a person expires, and where is he?
11 Water vanishes from the sea;a river dries up completely.
12 But a human lies down and doesn’t riseuntil the heavens cease;they don’t get up and awaken from sleep.
13 I wish you would hide me in the underworld,conceal me until your anger passes,set a time for me, and remember me.
14 If people die, will they live again?All the days of my service I would waituntil my restoration took place.
15 You would call, and I would answer you;you would long for your handiwork.
16 Though you now number my steps,you would not keep a record of my sin.
17 My rebellion is sealed in a bag;you would cover my sin.
18 But an eroding mountain breaks up,and rock is displaced.
19 Water wears away boulders;floods carry away soil;you destroy a people’s hope.
20 You overpower them relentlessly, and they die;you change their appearance and send them away.
21 Their children achieve honor, and they don’t know it;their children become insignificant, and they don’t see it.
22 They only feel the pain of their body,and they mourn for themselves.