< Job 14 >
1 “Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.
婦女所生的人,壽命不長,且飽嘗煩惱。
2 He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.
他生出像花,瞬息凋謝;急馳如影,不得停留。
3 Do you open your eyes on such a one, and bring me into judgment with you?
這樣的人,豈配你睜眼注視一下﹖或傳他到你面前聽審﹖
4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
誰能使潔淨出於不潔﹖沒有一人!
5 Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass.
他的時日既已注定,他的歲數既由你掌管,他決不能越過你定下的期限:
6 Look away from him, that he may rest, until he accomplishes, as a hireling, his day.
請你別看他,讓他安息,好像傭工度過自己的日期。
7 “For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease.
若是一棵樹被砍伐了,仍有希望生出新芽,嫩枝叢出不窮。
8 Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in the ground,
它的根雖老於地下,枝幹縱枯死地上,
9 yet through the scent of water it will bud, and sprout boughs like a plant.
但一有水氣,立即生芽,好似幼苗發出枝葉。
10 But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?
但是人一死,立即僵臥;人一斷氣,他究竟在何處﹖
11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes and dries up,
海水能乾涸,江河能枯竭;
12 so man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.
同樣,人一僵臥,即不能起立,直到天不存在,仍不能醒起,仍不能由永眠中起來。
13 “Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep me secret until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time and remember me! (Sheol )
唯願你將我藏於陰府,將我隱藏,直到挽回你的憤怒;願你給我定一期限,好記念我。 (Sheol )
14 If a man dies, will he live again? I would wait all the days of my warfare, until my release should come.
人若死了,豈能再生﹖我在整個從軍之日,要堅持到底,直到換班的時期到來。
15 You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire for the work of your hands.
你若呼喚我,我必回答你:你對你手所造的,必有一種懷念。
16 But now you count my steps. Don’t you watch over my sin?
你現今既數了我的腳步,不必再監察我的罪過。
17 My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity.
請把我的罪過封閉在囊中,滌淨我的一切過犯。
18 “But the mountain falling comes to nothing. The rock is removed out of its place.
但是,山能崩裂離析,盤石能由原處挪移,
19 The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.
流水能穿過石頭,驟雨能沖出泥沙:你也照樣消滅了人的希望。
20 You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change his face, and send him away.
你時常攻擊他,使他消逝;改變他的容貌,遣他離去。
21 His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it. They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them.
此後,他的兒子受尊榮與否,他也不知;他們受輕賤與否,他也不覺。
22 But his flesh on him has pain, and his soul within him mourns.”
他只覺自己肉身的痛苦,他的心靈只為自己悲哀。