| International Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1Human beings born by women are short-lived and full of trouble. | 1“How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble! |
| 2He springs up like a flower and then withers. Like a shadow, he disappears and doesn't last. | 2We blossom like a flower and then wither. Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear. |
| 3Indeed, have you opened your eyes on one like this— to bring me into a legal fight with you? | 3Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature and demand an accounting from me? |
| 4Who can produce a clean thing from an unclean thing? No one! | 4Who can bring purity out of an impure person? No one! |
| 5Since his days have been determined, the number of his months is known to you. You've set his limit and he cannot exceed it. | 5You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer. |
| 6Look away from him and leave him alone, so he can enjoy his time, like a hired worker." | 6So leave us alone and let us rest! We are like hired hands, so let us finish our work in peace. |
| 7"There is hope for the tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots won't stop growing. | 7“Even a tree has more hope! If it is cut down, it will sprout again and grow new branches. |
| 8Even if its roots have grown ancient in the earth, and its stump begins to rot in the ground, | 8Though its roots have grown old in the earth and its stump decays, |
| 9the presence of water will make it to bud so that it sprouts new branches like a young plant. | 9at the scent of water it will bud and sprout again like a new seedling. |
| 10"But when a person dies and wastes away, when a person breathes his last, where will he be? | 10“But when people die, their strength is gone. They breathe their last, and then where are they? |
| 11As water disappears from the sea, or water evaporates from a river, | 11As water evaporates from a lake and a river disappears in drought, |
| 12so also a person lies down and does not get up; they won't awaken until the heavens are no more, nor will they arise from their sleep." | 12people 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. |
| 13"Won't you keep me safe in the afterlife? Conceal me until your anger subsides. Set an appointment for me, then remember me. | 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! |
| 14If a human being dies, will he live again? I will endure the entire time of my assigned service, until I am changed. | 14Can 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. |
| 15You'll call and I'll answer you; you'll long for your creatures that your hands have made. | 15You would call and I would answer, and you would yearn for me, your handiwork. |
| 16Then you'll certainly count every step I took, but you won't keep an inventory of my sin. | 16For then you would guard my steps, instead of watching for my sins. |
| 17My transgressions would be sealed up in a bag; you would cover over my sins. | 17My sins would be sealed in a pouch, and you would cover my guilt. |
| 18"Mountains fall and crumble; rocks are dislodged from their places. | 18“But instead, as mountains fall and crumble and as rocks fall from a cliff, |
| 19Water wears away stones; floods wash away topsoil from the land— but you destroy the hope of human beings just like that! | 19as water wears away the stones and floods wash away the soil, so you destroy people’s hope. |
| 20You overpower him once and for all, and then he departs; you change his appearance and then send him away. | 20You always overpower them, and they pass from the scene. You disfigure them in death and send them away. |
| 21"If his children are honored, he doesn't know it; if they become insignificant, he never perceives it. | 21They never know if their children grow up in honor or sink to insignificance. |
| 22He feels only his own pain, and grieves only for himself." | 22They suffer painfully; their life is full of trouble.” |
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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