New International Version NIV
Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible RHE
1 “Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble.
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Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries.
2 They spring up like flowers and wither away; like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.
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Who cometh forth like a flower, and is destroyed, and fleeth as a shadow, and never continueth in the same state.
3 Do you fix your eye on them? Will you bring them before you for judgment?
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And dost thou think it meet to open thy eyes upon such an one, and to bring him into judgment with thee?
4 Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one!
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Who can make him clean that is conceived of unclean seed? is it not thou who only art?
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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The days of man are short, and the number of his months is with thee: thou hast appointed his bounds which cannot be passed.
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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Depart a little from him, that he may rest until his wished for day come, as that of the hireling.
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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A tree hath hope: if it be cut, it growth green again, and the boughs thereof sprout.
8 Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil,
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If its roots be old in the earth, and its stock be dead in the dust:
9 yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant.
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At the scent of water, it shall spring, and bring forth leaves, as when it was first planted.
10 But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more.
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But man when he shall be dead, and stripped and consumed, I pray you where is he?
11 As the water of a lake dries up or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,
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As if the waters should depart out of the sea, and an emptied river should be dried up;
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 man when he is fallen asleep shall not rise again; till the heavens be broken, he shall not awake, nor rise up out of his sleep.
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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Who will grant me this, that thou mayst protect me in hell, and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when thou wilt remember me?
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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Shall man that is dead, thinkest thou, live again? all the days in which I am now in warfare, I expect until my change come.
15 You will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made.
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Thou shalt call me, and I will answer thee: to the work of thy hands thou shalt reach out thy right hand.
16 Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin.
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Thou indeed hast numbered my steps, but spare my sins.
17 My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; you will cover over my sin.
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Thou hast sealed up my offences as it were in a bag, but hast cured my iniquity.
18 “But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from its place,
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A mountain falling cometh to nought, and a rock is removed out of its place.
19 as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy a person’s hope.
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Waters wear away the stones, and with inundation the ground by little and little is washed away: so in like manner thou shalt destroy man.
20 You overpower them once for all, and they are gone; you change their countenance and send them away.
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Thou hast strengthened him for a little while, that he may pass away for ever: thou shalt change his face, and shalt send him away.
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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Whether his children come to honour or dishonour, he shall not understand.
22 They feel but the pain of their own bodies and mourn only for themselves.”
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But yet his flesh, while he shall live, shall have pain, and his soul shall mourn over him.
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.
The Douay-Rheims Bible is in the public domain.