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 creatureand 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 againand grow new branches.
8. Though its roots have grown old in the earthand its stump decays,
9. at the scent of water it will budand 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 lakeand a river disappears in drought,