20Only two things—do not do to me; then I will not hide from your face.21Keep your hand far from me, and do not let your dread terrify me.22Call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and respond to me.23How many iniquities and sins? My transgressions and my sins—make them known to me!24Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy?25Will you terrify a driven leaf and pursue dry stubble?26For you write bitters against me, and you cause me to inherit the iniquities of my youth.27You put my feet in the stocks, and you watch all my paths; you engrave marks on the roots of my feet.28And he, as a rotten thing, will wear out, like a garment that moths have eaten.
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Chapter 14
1Man, born of woman, is short of days and full of trembling.2He comes forth like a flower and withers, flees like a shadow, and does not endure.3Indeed—upon this you have opened your eye, and you bring me into judgment with you and your people.4Who can bring a pure one from an unclean? Not one.5If his days are determined, the number of them is with you; you have decreed his limits, and he will not pass beyond them.6Turn away from him and let him alone until he is pleased, as a hired worker his day.7For there is hope for a tree: if it is cut down, yet it will sprout again, and its shoot will not cease.8If its root grows old in the earth and its stump dies in the dust.9It will blossom with the smell of water and make a harvest like a plant.10But a man dies and grows weak and gasps out his last; a human—and he is no more.11The waters fail from the sea, and a river is drained and dries up.12And man lies down and does not rise until the heavens awake and rouse themselves from their sleep.13Who will give you to hide me in the Underworld, to conceal me until your anger has passed, to appoint a set time for me and remember me!14If a man dies, will he live? All the days of my cosmic service I will wait until the coming of my replacement.15You will call, and I will answer you; you will long for the work of your hands.16For now you will count my steps; you will not keep watch over my sin.17You have sealed up my transgressions in a bundle, and you have plastered over my iniquity.18And yet a mountain that falls wastes away, and a rock is removed from its place.19Waters wear down stones; it sweeps away the soil of the earth, and you cause human hope to perish.20You overpower him forever, and he goes, changing his face, and you send him away.21His sons will be honored, but he will not know it; they will grieve, but he will not feel it for them.22Only his flesh will ache over him, and his soul will mourn over him.