New Living Translation NLT
Common English Bible CEB
1 “How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble!
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All of us are born of women, have few days, and are full of turmoil.
2 We blossom like a flower and then wither. Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear.
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Like a flower, we bloom, then wither, flee like a shadow, and don't last.
3 Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature and demand an accounting from me?
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(Yes, you open your eyes on this one; you bring me into trial against you.)
4 Who can bring purity out of an impure person? No one!
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Who can make pure from impure? Nobody.
5 You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer.
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If our days are fixed, the number of our months with you, you set a statute and we can't exceed it.
6 So leave us alone and let us rest! We are like hired hands, so let us finish our work in peace.
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Look away from us that we may rest, until we are satisfied like a worker at day's end.
7 “Even a tree has more hope! If it is cut down, it will sprout again and grow new branches.
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Indeed there is hope for a tree. If it's cut down and still sprouting and its shoots don't fail,
8 Though its roots have grown old in the earth and its stump decays,
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if its roots age in the ground and its stump dies in the dust,
9 at the scent of water it will bud and sprout again like a new seedling.
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at the scent of water, it will bud and produce sprouts like a plant.
10 “But when people die, their strength is gone. They breathe their last, and then where are they?
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But a human dies and lies there; a person expires, and where is he?
11 As water evaporates from a lake and a river disappears in drought,
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Water vanishes from the sea; a river dries up completely.
12 people are laid to rest and do not rise again. Until the heavens are no more, they will not wake up nor be roused from their sleep.
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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 grave and forget me there until your anger has passed. But mark your calendar to think of me again!
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I wish you would hide me in the underworld, conceal me until your anger passes, set a time for me, and remember me.
14 Can the dead live again? If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle, and I would eagerly await the release of death.
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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, and you would yearn for me, your handiwork.
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You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for your handiwork.
16 For then you would guard my steps, instead of watching for my sins.
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Though you now number my steps, you would not keep a record of my sin.
17 My sins would be sealed in a pouch, and you would cover my guilt.
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My rebellion is sealed in a bag; you would cover my sin.
18 “But instead, as mountains fall and crumble and as rocks fall from a cliff,
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But an eroding mountain breaks up, and rock is displaced.
19 as water wears away the stones and floods wash away the soil, so you destroy people’s hope.
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Water wears away boulders; floods carry away soil; you destroy a people's hope.
20 You always overpower them, and they pass from the scene. You disfigure them in death and send them away.
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You overpower them relentlessly, and they die; you change their appearance and send them away.
21 They never know if their children grow up in honor or sink to insignificance.
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Their children achieve honor, and they don't know it; their children become insignificant, and they don't see it.
22 They suffer painfully; their life is full of trouble.”
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They only feel the pain of their body, and they mourn for themselves.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible