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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.

For they are like a breath of air;
    their days are like a passing shadow.

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They are like a breath;(A)
    their days are like a fleeting shadow.(B)

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47 Remember how short my life is,
    how empty and futile this human existence!

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47 Remember how fleeting is my life.(A)
    For what futility you have created all humanity!

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We live our lives beneath your wrath,
    ending our years with a groan.

10 Seventy years are given to us!
    Some even live to eighty.
But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble;
    soon they disappear, and we fly away.

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All our days pass away under your wrath;
    we finish our years with a moan.(A)
10 Our days may come to seventy years,(B)
    or eighty,(C) if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,(D)
    for they quickly pass, and we fly away.(E)

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Common people are as worthless as a puff of wind,
    and the powerful are not what they appear to be.
If you weigh them on the scales,
    together they are lighter than a breath of air.

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Surely the lowborn(A) are but a breath,(B)
    the highborn are but a lie.
If weighed on a balance,(C) they are nothing;
    together they are only a breath.

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11 But as I looked at everything I had worked so hard to accomplish, it was all so meaningless—like chasing the wind. There was nothing really worthwhile anywhere.

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11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
    and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;(A)
    nothing was gained under the sun.(B)

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14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.

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14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.(A)

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For you, a thousand years are as a passing day,
    as brief as a few night hours.
You sweep people away like dreams that disappear.
    They are like grass that springs up in the morning.

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A thousand years in your sight
    are like a day that has just gone by,
    or like a watch in the night.(A)
Yet you sweep people away(B) in the sleep of death—
    they are like the new grass of the morning:

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11 When you discipline us for our sins,
    you consume like a moth what is precious to us.
    Each of us is but a breath. Interlude

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11 When you rebuke(A) and discipline(B) anyone for their sin,
    you consume(C) their wealth like a moth(D)
    surely everyone is but a breath.(E)

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14 “How frail is humanity!
    How short is life, how full of trouble!
We blossom like a flower and then wither.
    Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear.

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14 “Mortals, born of woman,(A)
    are of few days(B) and full of trouble.(C)
They spring up like flowers(D) and wither away;(E)
    like fleeting shadows,(F) they do not endure.(G)

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25 “My life passes more swiftly than a runner.
    It flees away without a glimpse of happiness.
26 It disappears like a swift papyrus boat,
    like an eagle swooping down on its prey.

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25 “My days are swifter than a runner;(A)
    they fly away without a glimpse of joy.(B)
26 They skim past(C) like boats of papyrus,(D)
    like eagles swooping down on their prey.(E)

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Job Cries Out to God

“My days fly faster than a weaver’s shuttle.
    They end without hope.

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“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,(A)
    and they come to an end without hope.(B)

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17 The nations of the world are worth nothing to him.
    In his eyes they count for less than nothing—
    mere emptiness and froth.

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17 Before him all the nations(A) are as nothing;(B)
    they are regarded by him as worthless
    and less than nothing.(C)

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