Job 14:5-12

5You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer.

6So leave us alone and let us rest! We are like hired hands, so let us finish our work in peace.

7“Even a tree has more hope! If it is cut down, it will sprout again and grow new branches.

8Though its roots have grown old in the earth and its stump decays,

9at the scent of water it will bud and sprout again like a new seedling.

10“But when people die, their strength is gone. They breathe their last, and then where are they?

11As water evaporates from a lake and a river disappears in drought,

12people are laid to rest and do not rise again. Until the heavens are no more, they will not wake up nor be roused from their sleep.