Common English Bible CEB
New Revised Standard NRS
1 All of us are born of women, have few days, and are full of turmoil.
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"A mortal, born of woman, few of days and full of trouble,
2 Like a flower, we bloom, then wither, flee like a shadow, and don't last.
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comes up like a flower and withers, flees like a shadow and does not last.
3 (Yes, you open your eyes on this one; you bring me into trial against you.)
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Do you fix your eyes on such a one? Do you bring me into judgment with you?
4 Who can make pure from impure? Nobody.
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Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one can.
5 If our days are fixed, the number of our months with you, you set a statute and we can't exceed it.
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Since their days are determined, and the number of their months is known to you, and you have appointed the bounds that they cannot pass,
6 Look away from us that we may rest, until we are satisfied like a worker at day's end.
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look away from them, and desist, that they may enjoy, like laborers, their days.
7 Indeed there is hope for a tree. If it's cut down and still sprouting and its shoots don't fail,
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"For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.
8 if its roots age in the ground and its stump dies in the dust,
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Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground,
9 at the scent of water, it will bud and produce sprouts like a plant.
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yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant.
10 But a human dies and lies there; a person expires, and where is he?
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But mortals die, and are laid low; humans expire, and where are they?
11 Water vanishes from the sea; a river dries up completely.
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As waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up,
12 But a human lies down and doesn't rise until the heavens cease; they don't get up and awaken from sleep.
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so mortals lie down and do not rise again; until the heavens are no more, they will not awake or be roused out of their sleep.
13 I wish you would hide me in the underworld, conceal me until your anger passes, set a time for me, and remember me.
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O that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time, 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.
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If mortals die, will they live again? All the days of my service I would wait until my release should come.
15 You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for your handiwork.
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You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands.
16 Though you now number my steps, you would not keep a record of my sin.
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For then you would not number my steps, you would not keep watch over my sin;
17 My rebellion is sealed in a bag; you would cover my sin.
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my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.
18 But an eroding mountain breaks up, and rock is displaced.
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"But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place;
19 Water wears away boulders; floods carry away soil; you destroy a people's hope.
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the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of mortals.
20 You overpower them relentlessly, and they die; you change their appearance and send them away.
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You prevail forever against them, and they pass away; you change their countenance, and send them away.
21 Their children achieve honor, and they don't know it; their children become insignificant, and they don't see it.
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Their children come to honor, and they do not know it; they are brought low, and it goes unnoticed.
22 They only feel the pain of their body, and they mourn for themselves.
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They feel only the pain of their own bodies, and mourn only for themselves."
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.