Job 14:1-22

Job continues to pray to God

1 Everyone that a woman gives birth to lives only for a short time.

The days of his life are full of trouble.

2 He is like a flower that grows

and then it soon dies.

His life quickly disappears like a shadow.

3 I am only a human like that,

so why do you watch me so carefully?

Why do you want to bring me into a court to judge me?

4 People are not clean and pure.

Nobody can change them to become pure.

5 You have decided how long people should live.

You control the number of months that each person will live.

Nobody can live any longer than that.

6 So do not watch us! Leave us alone!

We must work for the time that you have decided.

Please leave us to work in peace.

Everyone must die

7 If someone cuts down a tree,

the tree may not die.

New branches may grow from it.

8 Its roots in the ground may be old.

The part of the tree that remains may be nearly dead.

9 But if only a little water comes near to it,

it will start to grow again.

It will make new branches,

like a young plant.

10 But when people lose their strength and they die,

that is the end.

After they die, where do they go?

11 When the water disappears from a lake or a river,

they become dry.

12 It is the same with people when they die.

They will never rise to live again.

As long as the sky remains above the earth,

they will continue to sleep in death.

Job thinks about life after death

13 Please hide me in the place where dead people go!

Hide me there until you are no longer angry.

Decide how long I must be there,

and then remember me again!

14 If a man dies, will he live again?

If I knew that, I would suffer patiently.

I would wait until my troubles have finished.

15 You would call me and I would answer you.

You would want to see me again,

because your own hands created me.

16 You would watch me carefully,

but you would not make a note of my sins.

17 You would forgive me for my sins.

You would hide them away.

18 But mountains fall down and they break into pieces,

Rocks fall down from their places.

19 Stones become sand when water pours over them.

Floods wash away soil.

In the same way, you remove hope from a person's life.

20 Finally, you bring his life to an end.

He leaves this world.

You change his face in death

and you send him away.

21 If his sons become famous,

he does not know about it.

If they become ashamed,

he does not know that either.

22 A dead person thinks only about himself.

He feels his own pain and he is very sad.’