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- ¶ MAN that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
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- He comes forth like a flower, and withers and fades away;
he flees like a shadow, and continues not.
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- And dost thou open thine eyes upon such a one, and bring him into judgment with thee?
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- Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
No one.
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- Seeing his days are determined and the number of his months are decreed, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot trespass them;
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- Turn thy face away from him, and his days will be spent like a hireling.
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- ¶ For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again and its tender shoots will not cease.
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- Though its root wax old in the earth and its stock die in the ground,
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- Yet through the scent of water it will bud and bring forth leaves like a plant;
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- But man dies, and fades away;
yea, man perishes, and he is no more.
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- As the waters fail from the sea, and a river becomes desolate and dries up;
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- So man who lies down does not rise again;
until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.
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- O that thou wouldst hide me in Sheol, that thou wouldst keep me in a secret place until thy wrath is spent, that thou wouldst appoint me a set time and remember me!
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- If a man die, shall he live again?
All the days of his youth he waits till old age comes.
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- If thou wouldst call me, I would answer thee;
thou wilt think of the work of thy hands.
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- ¶ For now thou numberest not my steps: and thou keepest not watch over my sins.
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- My transgressions are sealed up in a bag, and thou removest from me my sins.
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- Truly a great mountain falls, and a rock moves out of its place.
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- The waters wear away the stones and wash away the soil of the earth;
so thou destroyest the hope of man.
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- Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passes;
thou castest him away with shame on his face.
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- If his sons multiply, he does not know it;
if they decrease, he perceives it not of them.
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- But his flesh upon him shall have pal,, and his soul within him shall mourn.
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