| New International Version | New Living Translation |
| 1"Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble. | 1“How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble! |
| 2They spring up like flowers and wither away; like fleeting shadows, they do not endure. | 2We blossom like a flower and then wither. Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear. |
| 3Do you fix your eye on them? Will you bring them before you for judgment? | 3Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature and demand an accounting from me? |
| 4Who can bring what is pure from the impure? No one! | 4Who can bring purity out of an impure person? No one! |
| 5A person's days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed. | 5You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer. |
| 6So look away from him and let him alone, till he has put in his time like a hired laborer. | 6So leave us alone and let us rest! We are like hired hands, so let us finish our work in peace. |
| 7"At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail. | 7“Even a tree has more hope! If it is cut down, it will sprout again and grow new branches. |
| 8Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil, | 8Though its roots have grown old in the earth and its stump decays, |
| 9yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant. | 9at the scent of water it will bud and sprout again like a new seedling. |
| 10But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last and is no more. | 10“But when people die, their strength is gone. They breathe their last, and then where are they? |
| 11As the water of a lake dries up or a riverbed becomes parched and dry, | 11As water evaporates from a lake and a river disappears in drought, |
| 12so he lies down and does not rise; till the heavens are no more, people will not awake or be roused 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"If only you would hide me in the grave and conceal me till your anger has passed! If only you would set me a time and 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 someone dies, will they live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come. | 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 will call and I will answer you; you will long for the creature your hands have made. | 15You would call and I would answer, and you would yearn for me, your handiwork. |
| 16Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin. | 16For then you would guard my steps, instead of watching for my sins. |
| 17My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; you will cover over my sin. | 17My sins would be sealed in a pouch, and you would cover my guilt. |
| 18"But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from its place, | 18“But instead, as mountains fall and crumble and as rocks fall from a cliff, |
| 19as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil, so you destroy a person's hope. | 19as water wears away the stones and floods wash away the soil, so you destroy people’s hope. |
| 20You overpower them once for all, and they are gone; you change their countenance and send them away. | 20You always overpower them, and they pass from the scene. You disfigure them in death and send them away. |
| 21If their children are honored, they do not know it; if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it. | 21They never know if their children grow up in honor or sink to insignificance. |
| 22They feel but the pain of their own bodies and mourn only for themselves." | 22They suffer painfully; their life is full of trouble.” |
| New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. | 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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