New Revised Standard NRS
The Message Bible MSG
1 "A mortal, born of woman, few of days and full of trouble,
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"We're all adrift in the same boat: too few days, too many troubles.
2 comes up like a flower and withers, flees like a shadow and does not last.
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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 eyes on such a one? Do you bring me into judgment with you?
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Do you occupy your time with such fragile wisps? Why even bother hauling me into court?
4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one can.
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There's nothing much to us to start with; how do you expect us to amount to anything?
5 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,
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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 look away from them, and desist, that they may enjoy, like laborers, their days.
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So why not give us a break? Ease up! Even ditchdiggers get occasional days off.
7 "For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.
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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 root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground,
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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 branches like a young plant.
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At the first whiff of water it comes to life, buds and grows like a sapling.
10 But mortals die, and are laid low; humans expire, and 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 waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up,
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Like lakes and rivers that have dried up, parched reminders of what once was,
12 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.
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So mortals lie down and never get up, never wake up again - never.
13 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!
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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 mortals die, will they live again? All the days of my service I would wait until my release should 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 would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands.
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Homesick with longing for the creature you made, you'll call - and I'll answer!
16 For then you would not number my steps, you would not keep watch over 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 transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.
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My sins will be stuffed in a sack and thrown into the sea - sunk in deep ocean.
18 "But the mountain falls and crumbles away, and the rock is removed from its place;
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"Meanwhile, mountains wear down and boulders break up,
19 the waters wear away the stones; the torrents wash away the soil of the earth; so you destroy the hope of mortals.
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Stones wear smooth and soil erodes, as you relentlessly grind down our hope.
20 You prevail forever against them, and they pass away; 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 Their children come to honor, and they do not know it; they are brought low, and it goes unnoticed.
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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 only 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."
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.
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.