Job Laments the Finality of Death 1 UST Human beings live only a short time, and during that time they experience much trouble. BSB BSB: “Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.
2 UST People live brief lives, like flowers that appear quickly but then wither and fall to the ground. Yes, people’ s lives are temporary, like shadows that appear only for a short time. BSB BSB: Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
3 UST God, you do not need to watch fragile humans so carefully. You do not need to judge everything that I do. BSB BSB: Do You open Your eyes to one like this? Will You bring him into judgment before You?
4 UST No one can make something that is acceptable to God out of something that is not acceptable to him. BSB BSB: Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!
5 UST You have decided how many days each human life will last. Yes, you have decided how many months each person will live. No one can live any longer than the time you have decided. Because this is true, BSB BSB: Since his days are determined and the number of his months is with You, and since You have set limits that he cannot exceed,
6 UST please stop watching people so closely. Give them relief so that they can live out their brief lives in peace. BSB BSB: look away from him and let him rest, so he can enjoy his day as a hired hand.
7 UST Now even after people cut a tree down, it is possible for it to start growing again and make new branches. BSB BSB: For there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its tender shoots will not fail.
8 UST Its roots in the ground may be very old, and its stump may be decaying, BSB BSB: If its roots grow old in the ground and its stump dies in the soil,
9 UST but when rain falls on it, it may revive and send up shoots just as a young plant does. BSB BSB: at the scent of water it will bud and put forth twigs like a sapling.
10 UST But even the strongest people die. They grow weak and stop breathing, and then they are gone forever. BSB BSB: But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?
11 UST Just as water evaporates from a lake, and just as a riverbed dries up, BSB BSB: As water disappears from the sea and a river becomes parched and dry,
12 UST so people die and do not become alive again. Until the heavens do not exist any longer, people who die will not come back to life. No, no one will be able to make them alive again. BSB BSB: so a man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens are no more, he will not be awakened or roused from sleep.
13 UST I wish that you, God, would put me safely in the place where dead people go and forget about me. That way I would not suffer any more until you were no longer angry with me. I wish that you would decide how much time I need to spend there and then come and rescue me from that place. BSB BSB: If only You would hide me in Sheol and conceal me until Your anger has passed! If only You would appoint a time for me and then remember me!
14 UST I do not believe that we humans live again after we die. If I knew that I would live again, I would wait patiently throughout this difficult life. I would know that after I died, things would become different for me. BSB BSB: When a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, until my renewal comes.
15 UST { After I had been in the place where dead people go for the time you had determined,} you would call for me, and I would answer you. You would be eager to see me, one of the creatures that you had made. BSB BSB: You will call, and I will answer; You will desire the work of Your hands.
16 UST Yes, then you would protect me wherever I went, and you would not be watching to see whether I sinned or not. BSB BSB: For then You would count my steps, but would not keep track of my sin.
17 UST You would forgive the things I had done wrong. Yes, it would be as if I had not done them at all. BSB BSB: My transgression would be sealed in a bag, and You would cover over my iniquity.
18 UST But just as mountains erode away and rocks tumble down slopes, BSB BSB: But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and a rock is dislodged from its place,
19 UST just as water wears away stones and floods wash away soil, so you make all people die, even though they hope to keep living. BSB BSB: as water wears away the stones and torrents wash away the soil, so You destroy a man’s hope.
20 UST You make us age the whole time we are living, and then we die. Yes, you make our faces show that we are old and about to die, and then you make us go to the place where dead people go. BSB BSB: You forever overpower him, and he passes on; You change his countenance and send him away.
21 UST When we die, we do not know whether our children will grow up and do things that will cause other people to honor them. If they do shameful things instead, we do not know that either. BSB BSB: If his sons receive honor, he does not know it; if they are brought low, he is unaware.
22 UST When we die, we feel sorry for ourselves, but no one else feels sorry for us. Yes, we grieve for ourselves, but no one else grieves for us.” BSB BSB: He feels only the pain of his own body and mourns only for himself.”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.