Job 14
1 Homo natus de muliere, brevi vivens tempore, repletur multis miseriis.
Life is short and full of trouble,
2 Qui quasi flos egreditur et conteritur, et fugit velut umbra, et numquam in eodem statu permanet.
like a flower that blooms and withers, like a passing shadow that soon disappears.
3 Et dignum ducis super huiuscemodi aperire oculos tuos, et adducere eum tecum in iudicium?
Do you even notice me, God, and why do you have to drag me to court?
4 Quis potest facere mundum de immundo conceptum semine? nonne tu qui solus es?
Who can bring something clean of what is unclean? No one.
5 Breves dies hominis sunt: numerus mensium eius apud te est: constituisti terminos eius, qui præteriri non poterunt.
You have determined how long we shall live—the number of months, a time limit on our lives.
6 Recede paululum ab eo, ut quiescat, donec optata veniat, sicut mercenarii, dies eius.
So leave us alone and give us some peace—so like a laborer we could enjoy a few hours of rest at the end of the day.
7 Lignum habet spem: si præcisum fuerit, rursum virescit, et rami eius pullulant.
Even a tree that's cut down has the hope of sprouting again, of sending up shoots and continuing to live.
8 Si senuerit in terra radix eius, et in pulvere emortuus fuerit truncus illius,
Even though its roots grow old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground,
9 Ad odorem aquæ germinabit, et faciet comam quasi cum primum plantatum est:
just a trickle of water will make it bud and grow branches like a young plant.
10 Homo vero cum mortuus fuerit, et nudatus atque consumptus, ubi quæso est?
But human beings die, their strength dwindles away; they perish, and where are they then?
11 Quomodo si recedant aquæ de mari, et fluvius vacuefactus arescat:
Like water evaporating from a lake and a river that dries up and disappears,
12 Sic homo cum dormierit, non resurget, donec atteratur cælum, non evigilabit, nec consurget de somno suo.
so human beings lie down and don't get up again. Until the heavens cease to exist they will not awake from their sleep.
13 Quis mihi hoc tribuat, ut in inferno protegas me, et abscondas me, donec pertranseat furor tuus, et constituas mihi tempus, in quo recorderis mei? (Sheol h7585)
I wish you would hide me in Sheol; conceal me there until your anger is gone. Set a definite time for me there, and remember me! (Sheol h7585)
14 Putasne mortuus homo rursum vivat? cunctis diebus, quibus nunc milito, expecto donec veniat immutatio mea.
Will the dead live again? Then I would have hope through all my time of trouble until my release comes.
15 Vocabis me, et ego respondebo tibi: operi manuum tuarum porriges dexteram.
You would call and I would answer you; you would long for me, the being that you made.
16 Tu quidem gressus meos dinumerasti, sed parce peccatis meis.
Then you would look after me and wouldn't be watching me to see if I sinned.
17 Signasti quasi in sacculo delicta mea, sed curasti iniquitatem meam.
My sins would be sealed up in a bag and you would cover my guilt.
18 Mons cadens defluit, et saxum transfertur de loco suo.
But just as the mountains crumble and fall, and the rocks tumble down;
19 Lapides excavant aquæ, et alluvione paulatim terra consumitur: et hominem ergo similiter perdes.
as water wears away the stones, as floods wash away the soil, so you destroy the hope people have.
20 Roborasti eum paululum ut in perpetuum transiret: immutabis faciem eius, et emittes eum.
You continually overpower them and they pass away; you distort their faces in death and send them away.
21 Sive nobiles fuerint filii eius, sive ignobiles, non intelliget.
Their children may become important or fall from their positions, but they don't know or see any of this.
22 Attamen caro eius dum vivet dolebit, et anima illius super semetipso lugebit.
As people die they only know their own pain and are sad for themselves.”
