Job entreats God for favour, by the shortness of life, and certainty of death.

14:1 “Man, who is born of a woman,
is of few days, and full of trouble.

14:2 He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down.
He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.

14:3 Do you open your eyes on such a one,
and bring me into judgment with you?

14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
Not one.

14:5 Seeing his days are determined,
the number of his months is with you,
and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass;

14:6 Look away from him, that he may rest,
until he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.

He waits for his change.

14:7 “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.

14:8 Though its root grows old in the earth,
and its stock dies in the ground,

14:9 yet through the scent of water it will bud,
and put forth boughs like a plant.

14:10 But man dies, and is laid low.
Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?

14:11 As the waters fail from the sea,
and the river wastes and dries up,

14:12 so man lies down and doesn’t rise.
Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake,
nor be roused out of their sleep.

14:13 “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!

14:14 If a man dies, shall he live again?
All the days of my warfare would I wait,
until my release should come.

14:15 You would call, and I would answer you.
You would have a desire to the work of your hands.

By sin the creature is subject to corruption.

14:16 But now you number my steps.
Don’t you watch over my sin?

14:17 My disobedience is sealed up in a bag.
You fasten up my iniquity.

14:18 “But the mountain falling comes to nothing.
The rock is removed out of its place;

14:19 The waters wear the stones.
The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth.
So you destroy the hope of man.

14:20 You forever prevail against him, and he departs.
You change his face, and send him away.

14:21 His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it.
They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them.

14:22 But his flesh on him has pain,
and his soul within him mourns.”