New Revised Standard Version
So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it to come down to you?”

Contemporary English Version
So I sent messengers to tell them, "My work is too important to stop now and go there. I can't afford to slow down the work just to visit with you."

New American Bible
I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am engaged in a great enterprise and am unable to come down. Why should the work stop, while I leave it to come down to you?”

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I sent messengers to them, saying: I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down, lest it be neglected whilst I come, and go down to you.

And I sent messengers to them, saying: I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down, lest it be neglected whilst I come, and go down to you.

And I sent

Proverbs 14:15 The innocent believeth every word: the discreet man considereth his steps. No good shall come to the deceitful son: but the wise servant shall prosper in his dealings, and his way shall be made straight.

Matthew 10:16 Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves.

I am doing

Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly: for neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening.

Luke 14:30 Saying: This man began to build and was not able to finish.

John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, whilst it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

1 Timothy 4:15,16 Meditate upon these things, be wholly in these things: that thy profiting may be manifest to all. . . .