¹Man, born of woman, short of days and sated with agitation.

²Like a flower he goes forth and withers; he flees like a shadow and does not stand.

³Even over this you open your eye, and me you bring into justice with you.

⁴Who can make a clean thing from an unclean one? Not one.

⁵If his days are decided, the number of his months is with you; his limits you have made, and he will not cross over.

⁶Look away from him, so that he may cease, until he takes pleasure, like a hired man, in his day.

⁷For there is hope for a tree: if it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its young shoot will not fail.

⁸Though its root grows old in the land, and its stump dies in the dust,

⁹From the scent of waters it will bud, and make boughs like a young plant.

¹⁰But a man dies and is laid low; a human breathes out, and where is he?

¹¹Waters go away from the sea, and a river parches and dries up.

¹²And a man lies down and does not rise; until the skies are no more, they will not wake, and will not be roused from their sleep.

¹³Who will grant that in Sheol you hide me, conceal me, until your anger turns back; that you set a limit for me and remember me?

¹⁴If a man dies, will he live? All the days of my service I will wait, until my change comes.

¹⁵You will call, and I will answer you; for the work of your hands you will yearn.

¹⁶For now you count my steps; you do not watch over my sin.

¹⁷My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and you smear over my guilt.

¹⁸But a mountain falling fades away, and a rock moves from its place,

¹⁹Waters rub away stones; its freshets wash off the dust of the land, and you destroy the hope of humankind.

²⁰You overpower him forever, and he goes away; changing his face, you send him off.

²¹His sons are honored, and he does not know; they are diminished, and he does not perceive them.

²²Only his flesh on him is in pain, and his being on him mourns.