[1] "How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble! [2] We blossom like a flower and then wither. Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear. [3] Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature and demand an accounting from me? [4] Who can bring purity out of an impure person? No one! [5] You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer. [6] So 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. [8] Though its roots have grown old in the earth and its stump decays, [9] at 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? [11] As water evaporates from a lake and a river disappears in drought, [12] people 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. [13] "I wish you would hide me in the grave and forget me there until your anger has passed. But mark your calendar to think of me again! [14] Can the dead live again? If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle, and I would eagerly await the release of death. [15] You would call and I would answer, and you would yearn for me, your handiwork. [16] For then you would guard my steps, instead of watching for my sins. [17] My sins would be sealed in a pouch, and you would cover my guilt. [18] "But instead, as mountains fall and crumble and as rocks fall from a cliff, [19] as water wears away the stones and floods wash away the soil, so you destroy people's hope. [20] You always overpower them, and they pass from the scene. You disfigure them in death and send them away. [21] They never know if their children grow up in honor or sink to insignificance. [22] They suffer painfully; their life is full of trouble."
