Job 14

1‘Every man that is born will only live for a few years.

And his life will be full of trouble.

2Flowers grow and soon die. Our lives are not long, either.

We are like shadows that soon pass by.

3So I would like to know why you always watch a weak person like me.

You always want me to explain the wrong things that I have done.
I would like to know why you want me to do that.

4People who are bad do not know the right way to live.

No one can change them so that they live like that.

5You have decided whether we will live for a long time or for a short time.

You know the number of months that we will live. And we cannot change that.

6So do not watch me any more.

I may live like a servant. But please let me enjoy my life.

7If someone cuts branches off a tree, the tree will not die.

Instead, new branches will grow.

8Its roots may be old.

Its branches may have fallen off and the tree may be nearly dead.

9But if there is even a little water, the tree will not die.

And its branches will start to grow again.

10But when people are dying, they become very weak.

Then they die and they can never live again.

11When there is no water in the river or the lake,

they both become dry.

12People are like that. They die and they never live again.

They will not wake while the sky is above the earth.

13I want you to hide me among all the dead people.

Hide me until you are no longer angry with me.
Then decide when you will remember me.

14If a man dies, he will not live again.

So I will wait until my troubles have stopped.

Then I might hope to have a better life.

15You will call me and I will answer you.

Then you will have pleasure, because you made me.

16Then you will watch what I do. And you will watch where I go.

But you will not still remember the wrong things that I have done.

17You will forgive me for those wrong things.

And you will hide them so that you never see them again.

18In the end, mountains fall

and rocks move from their places.

19In the end, water will break stones.

When the rain falls, nothing remains on the earth.

And in the end, because of the things that you do,

no man can hope to have a better life.

20In the end, you kill him. Then he is gone for always.

You change his face and you send him away.

21He does not know if his sons become famous.

Nor does he know if they have wasted their lives.

22He thinks only about the pain that he feels.

He does not think about the pain that other people feel.

And when he is sad, he thinks only about himself.’