⁷ Indeed there is hope for a tree.
    If it’s cut down and still sprouting
    and its shoots don’t fail,
⁸     if its roots age in the ground
        and its stump dies in the dust,
⁹     at the scent of water, it will bud
        and produce sprouts like a plant.
¹⁰ But a human dies and lies there;
    a person expires, and where is he?
¹¹ Water vanishes from the sea;
    a river dries up completely.
¹² But a human lies down and doesn’t rise
        until the heavens cease;
    they don’t get up and awaken from sleep.

¹³ I wish you would hide me in the underworld,^[a]
    conceal me until your anger passes,
    set a time for me, and remember me.
¹⁴ If people die, will they live again?
    All the days of my service I would wait
        until my restoration took place.
¹⁵ You would call, and I would answer you;
    you would long for your handiwork.

¹⁸ But an eroding mountain breaks up,
    and rock is displaced.
¹⁹ Water wears away boulders;
    floods carry away soil;
    you destroy a people’s hope.

²³ Oh, that my words were written down,
        inscribed on a scroll
²⁴     with an iron instrument and lead,
        forever engraved on stone.
²⁵ But I know that my redeemer^[a] is alive
        and afterward he’ll rise upon the dust.
²⁶ After my skin has been torn apart this way—
    then from my flesh^[b] I’ll see God,
²⁷         whom I’ll see myself—
        my eyes see,^[c] and not a stranger’s.
    I am utterly dejected.