4. Nothing clean can ever comefrom anything as unclean as human beings.
5. The length of their lives is decided beforehand —the number of months they will live.You have settled it, and it can't be changed.
6. Look away from them and leave them alone;let them enjoy their hard life — if they can.
7. There is hope for a tree that has been cut down;it can come back to life and sprout.
8. Even though its roots grow old,and its stump dies in the ground,
9. with water it will sprout like a young plant.
10. But people die, and that is the end of them;they die, and where are they then?
11. Like rivers that stop running,and lakes that go dry,
12. people die, never to rise.They will never wake up while the sky endures;they will never stir from their sleep.
13. I wish you would hide me in the world of the dead;let me be hidden until your anger is over,and then set a time to remember me.
14. If people die, can they come back to life?But I will wait for better times,wait till this time of trouble is ended.
15. Then you will call, and I will answer,and you will be pleased with me, your creature.
16. Then you will watch every step I take,but you will not keep track of my sins.