New International Version NIV
The Message Bible MSG
1 “Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble.
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"We're all adrift in the same boat: too few days, too many troubles.
2 They spring up like flowers and wither away; like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.
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We spring up like wildflowers in the desert and then wilt, transient as the shadow of a cloud.
3 Do you fix your eye on them? Will you bring them before you for judgment?
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Do you occupy your time with such fragile wisps? Why even bother hauling me into court?
4 Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one!
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There's nothing much to us to start with; how do you expect us to amount to anything?
5 A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.
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Mortals have a limited life span. You've already decided how long we'll live - you set the boundary and no one can cross it.
6 So look away from him and let him alone, till he has put in his time like a hired laborer.
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So why not give us a break? Ease up! Even ditchdiggers get occasional days off.
7 “At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.
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For a tree there is always hope. Chop it down and it still has a chance - its roots can put out fresh sprouts.
8 Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil,
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Even if its roots are old and gnarled, its stump long dormant,
9 yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant.
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At the first whiff of water it comes to life, buds and grows like a sapling.
10 But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more.
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But men and women? They die and stay dead. They breathe their last, and that's it.
11 As the water of a lake dries up or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,
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Like lakes and rivers that have dried up, parched reminders of what once was,
12 so he lies down and does not rise; till the heavens are no more, people will not awake or be roused from their sleep.
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So mortals lie down and never get up, never wake up again - never.
13 “If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed! If only you would set me a time and then remember me!
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Why don't you just bury me alive, get me out of the way until your anger cools? But don't leave me there! Set a date when you'll see me again.
14 If someone dies, will they live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come.
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If we humans die, will we live again? That's my question. All through these difficult days I keep hoping, waiting for the final change - for resurrection!
15 You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made.
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Homesick with longing for the creature you made, you'll call - and I'll answer!
16 Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin.
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You'll watch over every step I take, but you won't keep track of my missteps.
17 My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; you will cover over my sin.
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My sins will be stuffed in a sack and thrown into the sea - sunk in deep ocean.
18 “But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from its place,
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"Meanwhile, mountains wear down and boulders break up,
19 as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy a person’s hope.
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Stones wear smooth and soil erodes, as you relentlessly grind down our hope.
20 You overpower them once for all, and they are gone; you change their countenance and send them away.
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You're too much for us. As always, you get the last word. We don't like it and our faces show it, but you send us off anyway.
21 If their children are honored, they do not know it; if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it.
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If our children do well for themselves, we never know it; if they do badly, we're spared the hurt.
22 They feel but the pain of their own bodies and mourn only for themselves.”
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Body and soul, that's it for us - a lifetime of pain, a lifetime of sorrow."
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.