1  “Man who is ^kborn of a woman

is ^lfew of days and ^mfull of trouble.

2  He comes out like ⁿa flower and ^owithers;

he flees like ^pa shadow and continues not.

7  “For there is hope for a tree,

if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,

and that its shoots will not cease.

8  Though its root grow old in the earth,

and ^xits stump die in the soil,

9  yet at the scent of water it will bud

and put out ^ybranches like a young plant.

10  But a man dies and is laid low;

man breathes his last, and ^zwhere is he?

11  ^aAs waters fail from a lake

and a river wastes away and dries up,

12  so a man lies down and rises not again;

till ^bthe heavens are no more he will not awake

or be ^croused out of his sleep.

13  Oh that you would ^dhide me in ^eSheol,

that you would ^dconceal me ^funtil your wrath be past,

that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!

14  If a man dies, shall he live again?

All the days of my ^gservice I would ^hwait,

till my renewal¹ should come.

15  You would ⁱcall, and I would answer you;

you would long for the ^jwork of your hands.

23  “Oh that my words were written!

Oh that they were ^tinscribed in a book!

24  Oh that with an iron ^upen and lead

they were engraved in the rock forever!

25  For I ^vknow that my ^wRedeemer lives,

and at the last he will stand upon the ^xearth.¹

26  And after my skin has been thus destroyed,

yet in² my flesh I shall ^ysee God,

27  whom I shall see for myself,

and my eyes shall behold, and not ^zanother.

My heart ^afaints within me!