New International Version NIV
The Message Bible MSG
1 “Do not mortals have hard service on earth? Are not their days like those of hired laborers?
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"Human life is a struggle, isn't it? It's a life sentence to hard labor.
2 Like a slave longing for the evening shadows, or a hired laborer waiting to be paid,
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Like field hands longing for quitting time and working stiffs with nothing to hope for but payday,
3 so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me.
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I'm given a life that meanders and goes nowhere - months of aimlessness, nights of misery!
4 When I lie down I think, ‘How long before I get up?’ The night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.
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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!
5 My body is clothed with worms and scabs, my skin is broken and festering.
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I'm covered with maggots and scabs. My skin gets scaly and hard, then oozes with pus.
6 “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.
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My days come and go swifter than the click of knitting needles, and then the yarn runs out - an unfinished life!
7 Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again.
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"God, don't forget that I'm only a puff of air! These eyes have had their last look at goodness.
8 The eye that now sees me will see me no longer; you will look for me, but I will be no more.
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And your eyes have seen the last of me; even while you're looking, there'll be nothing left to look at.
9 As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so one who goes down to the grave does not return.
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When a cloud evaporates, it's gone for good; those who go to the grave never come back.
10 He will never come to his house again; his place will know him no more.
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They don't return to visit their families; never again will friends drop in for coffee.
11 “Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
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"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.
12 Am I the sea, or the monster of the deep, that you put me under guard?
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Are you going to put a muzzle on me, the way you quiet the sea and still the storm?
13 When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint,
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If I say, 'I'm going to bed, then I'll feel better. A little nap will lift my spirits,'
14 even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions,
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You come and so scare me with nightmares and frighten me with ghosts
15 so that I prefer strangling and death, rather than this body of mine.
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That I'd rather strangle in the bedclothes than face this kind of life any longer.
16 I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning.
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I hate this life! Who needs any more of this? Let me alone! There's nothing to my life - it's nothing but smoke.
17 “What is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention,
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"What are mortals anyway, that you bother with them, that you even give them the time of day?
18 that you examine them every morning and test them every moment?
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That you check up on them every morning, looking in on them to see how they're doing?
19 Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant?
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Let up on me, will you? Can't you even let me spit in peace?
20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you, you who see everything we do? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you?
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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?
21 Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more.”
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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."
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.
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.