1. MAN WHO is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.
2. He comes forth like a flower and withers; he flees also like a shadow and continues not.
3. And [Lord] do You open Your eyes upon such a one, and bring me into judgment with You?
4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one! [Isa. 1:18; I John 1:7.]
5. Since a man's days are already determined, and the number of his months is wholly in Your control, and he cannot pass the bounds of his allotted time–
6. [O God] turn from him [and cease to watch him so pitilessly]; let him rest until he has accomplished as does a hireling the appointed time for his day.
7. For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again and that the tender shoots of it will not cease. [But there is no such hope for man.]
8. Though its roots grow old in the earth and its stock dies in the ground,
9. Yet through the scent [and breathing] of water [the stump of the tree] will bud and bring forth boughs like a young plant.
10. But [the brave, strong] man must die and lie prostrate; yes, man breathes his last, and where is he?
11. As waters evaporate from the lake, and the river drains and dries up,
12. So man lies down and does not rise [to his former state]. Till the heavens are no more, men will not awake nor be raised [physically] out of their sleep.