The Message Bible MSG
New Living Translation NLT
1 "Human life is a struggle, isn't it? It's a life sentence to hard labor.
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“Is not all human life a struggle? Our lives are like that of a hired hand,
2 Like field hands longing for quitting time and working stiffs with nothing to hope for but payday,
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like a worker who longs for the shade, like a servant waiting to be paid.
3 I'm given a life that meanders and goes nowhere - months of aimlessness, nights of misery!
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I, too, have been assigned months of futility, long and weary nights of misery.
4 I go to bed and think, 'How long till I can get up?' I toss and turn as the night drags on - and I'm fed up!
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Lying in bed, I think, ‘When will it be morning?’ But the night drags on, and I toss till dawn.
5 I'm covered with maggots and scabs. My skin gets scaly and hard, then oozes with pus.
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My body is covered with maggots and scabs. My skin breaks open, oozing with pus.
6 My days come and go swifter than the click of knitting needles, and then the yarn runs out - an unfinished life!
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“My days fly faster than a weaver’s shuttle. They end without hope.
7 "God, don't forget that I'm only a puff of air! These eyes have had their last look at goodness.
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O God, remember that my life is but a breath, and I will never again feel happiness.
8 And your eyes have seen the last of me; even while you're looking, there'll be nothing left to look at.
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You see me now, but not for long. You will look for me, but I will be gone.
9 When a cloud evaporates, it's gone for good; those who go to the grave never come back.
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Just as a cloud dissipates and vanishes, those who die will not come back.
10 They don't return to visit their families; never again will friends drop in for coffee.
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They are gone forever from their home— never to be seen again.
11 "And so I'm not keeping one bit of this quiet, I'm laying it all out on the table; my complaining to high heaven is bitter, but honest.
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“I cannot keep from speaking. I must express my anguish. My bitter soul must complain.
12 Are you going to put a muzzle on me, the way you quiet the sea and still the storm?
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Am I a sea monster or a dragon that you must place me under guard?
13 If I say, 'I'm going to bed, then I'll feel better. A little nap will lift my spirits,'
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I think, ‘My bed will comfort me, and sleep will ease my misery,’
14 You come and so scare me with nightmares and frighten me with ghosts
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but then you shatter me with dreams and terrify me with visions.
15 That I'd rather strangle in the bedclothes than face this kind of life any longer.
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I would rather be strangled— rather die than suffer like this.
16 I hate this life! Who needs any more of this? Let me alone! There's nothing to my life - it's nothing but smoke.
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I hate my life and don’t want to go on living. Oh, leave me alone for my few remaining days.
17 "What are mortals anyway, that you bother with them, that you even give them the time of day?
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“What are people, that you should make so much of us, that you should think of us so often?
18 That you check up on them every morning, looking in on them to see how they're doing?
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For you examine us every morning and test us every moment.
19 Let up on me, will you? Can't you even let me spit in peace?
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Why won’t you leave me alone, at least long enough for me to swallow!
20 Even suppose I'd sinned - how would that hurt you? You're responsible for every human being. Don't you have better things to do than pick on me? Why make a federal case out of me?
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If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of all humanity? Why make me your target? Am I a burden to you?
21 Why don't you just forgive my sins and start me off with a clean slate? The way things are going, I'll soon be dead. You'll look high and low, but I won't be around."
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Why not just forgive my sin and take away my guilt? For soon I will lie down in the dust and die. When you look for me, I will be gone.”
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.
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.