1. “A human being born of a woman is short of days and full of troubles.
2. Like a flower he comes up, and he withers away; and he flees like a shadow, but he does not last.
3. Even on such a one you fix your eyes, and you bring me into judgment with you.
4. “Who can bring a clean thing from an unclean thing? No one!
5. If his days are determined, the number of his months is with you; you have appointed his boundaries, and he cannot cross them.
6. Look away from him, and let him desist until he enjoys his days like a laborer.
7. “Indeed, there is hope for a tree: if it is cut down, then it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not cease;
8. though its root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the dust,
9. at the scent of water it will bud, and it will put forth branches like a young plant.
10. “But a man dies, and he dwindles away; thus a human being passes away, and where is he?
11. As water disappears from a lake, and a river withers away and dries up,
12. so a man lies down, and he does not arise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not awaken, and they will not be roused out of their sleep.