New Living Translation NLT
The Message Bible MSG
1 “How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble!
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"We're all adrift in the same boat: too few days, too many troubles.
2 We blossom like a flower and then wither. Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear.
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We spring up like wildflowers in the desert and then wilt, transient as the shadow of a cloud.
3 Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature and demand an accounting from me?
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Do you occupy your time with such fragile wisps? Why even bother hauling me into court?
4 Who can bring purity out of an impure person? 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 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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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 leave us alone and let us rest! We are like hired hands, so let us finish our work in peace.
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So why not give us a break? Ease up! Even ditchdiggers get occasional days off.
7 “Even a tree has more hope! If it is cut down, it will sprout again and grow new branches.
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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 Though its roots have grown old in the earth and its stump decays,
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Even if its roots are old and gnarled, its stump long dormant,
9 at the scent of water it will bud and sprout again like a new seedling.
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At the first whiff of water it comes to life, buds and grows like a sapling.
10 “But when people die, their strength is gone. They breathe their last, and then where are they?
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But men and women? They die and stay dead. They breathe their last, and that's it.
11 As water evaporates from a lake and a river disappears in drought,
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Like lakes and rivers that have dried up, parched reminders of what once was,
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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So mortals lie down and never get up, never wake up again - never.
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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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 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 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 would call and I would answer, and you would yearn for me, your handiwork.
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Homesick with longing for the creature you made, you'll call - and I'll answer!
16 For then you would guard my steps, instead of watching for my sins.
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You'll watch over every step I take, but you won't keep track of my missteps.
17 My sins would be sealed in a pouch, and you would cover my guilt.
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My sins will be stuffed in a sack and thrown into the sea - sunk in deep ocean.
18 “But instead, as mountains fall and crumble and as rocks fall from a cliff,
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"Meanwhile, mountains wear down and boulders break up,
19 as water wears away the stones and floods wash away the soil, so you destroy people’s hope.
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Stones wear smooth and soil erodes, as you relentlessly grind down our 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'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 They never know if their children grow up in honor or sink to insignificance.
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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 suffer painfully; their life is full of trouble.”
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Body and soul, that's it for us - a lifetime of pain, a lifetime of sorrow."
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.
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.