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30 Even youths will become weak and tired,
    and young men will fall in exhaustion.

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30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men(A) stumble and fall;(B)

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14 Your fastest runners will not get away.
    The strongest among you will become weak.
Even mighty warriors will be unable to save themselves.

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14 The swift will not escape,(A)
    the strong(B) will not muster their strength,
    and the warrior will not save his life.(C)

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10 Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry,
    but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.

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10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,
    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.(A)

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18 The attacking armies will shoot down the young men with arrows.
    They will have no mercy on helpless babies
    and will show no compassion for children.”

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18 Their bows(A) will strike down the young men;(B)
    they will have no mercy(C) on infants,
    nor will they look with compassion on children.(D)

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11 I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time.

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11 I have seen something else under the sun:

The race is not to the swift
    or the battle to the strong,(A)
nor does food come to the wise(B)
    or wealth to the brilliant
    or favor to the learned;
but time and chance(C) happen to them all.(D)

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16 The best-equipped army cannot save a king,
    nor is great strength enough to save a warrior.

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16 No king is saved by the size of his army;(A)
    no warrior escapes by his great strength.

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17 That is why the Lord takes no pleasure in the young men
    and shows no mercy even to the widows and orphans.
For they are all wicked hypocrites,
    and they all speak foolishness.
But even then the Lord’s anger will not be satisfied.
    His fist is still poised to strike.

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17 Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men,(A)
    nor will he pity(B) the fatherless and widows,
for everyone is ungodly(C) and wicked,(D)
    every mouth speaks folly.(E)

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,
    his hand is still upraised.(F)

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11 So now I am filled with the Lord’s fury.
    Yes, I am tired of holding it in!

“I will pour out my fury on children playing in the streets
    and on gatherings of young men,
on husbands and wives
    and on those who are old and gray.

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11 But I am full of the wrath(A) of the Lord,
    and I cannot hold it in.(B)

“Pour it out on the children in the street
    and on the young men(C) gathered together;
both husband and wife will be caught in it,
    and the old, those weighed down with years.(D)

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You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
    My entire lifetime is just a moment to you;
    at best, each of us is but a breath.” Interlude

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You have made my days(A) a mere handbreadth;
    the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,(B)
    even those who seem secure.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 39:5 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 11.

21 For death has crept in through our windows
    and has entered our mansions.
It has killed off the flower of our youth:
    Children no longer play in the streets,
    and young men no longer gather in the squares.

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21 Death has climbed in through our windows(A)
    and has entered our fortresses;
it has removed the children from the streets
    and the young men(B) from the public squares.

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