Job 14:1-10

1“A person who is born of a woman is short-lived and is full of trouble.

2He comes up like a flower; then he withers. He is like a fleeting shadow; he doesn’t stay long.

3You observe this and call me to account to you.

4“If only an unclean person could become clean! It’s not possible.

5If the number of his days and the number of his months are determined by you, and you set his limit, then he cannot go past it.

6Look away from him, and he will cease to be. Meanwhile, he loves life as a laborer loves work.

7There is hope for a tree when it is cut down. It will sprout again. Its shoots will not stop sprouting.

8If its roots grow old in the ground and its stump dies in the soil,

9merely a scent of water will make it sprout and grow branches like a plant.

10But a human dies and is powerless. A person breathes his last breath, and where is he?