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

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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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39 For he remembered that they were merely mortal,
    gone like a breath of wind that never returns.

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39 He remembered that they were but flesh,(A)
    a passing breeze(B) that does not return.

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35 I am eighty years old today, and I can no longer enjoy anything. Food and wine are no longer tasty, and I cannot hear the singers as they sing. I would only be a burden to my lord the king.

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35 I am now eighty(A) years old. Can I tell the difference between what is enjoyable and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats and drinks? Can I still hear the voices of male and female singers?(B) Why should your servant be an added(C) burden to my lord the king?

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Jacob replied, “I have traveled this earth for 130 hard years. But my life has been short compared to the lives of my ancestors.”

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And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty.(A) My years have been few and difficult,(B) and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.(C)

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Moses was 120 years old when he died, yet his eyesight was clear, and he was as strong as ever.

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Moses was a hundred and twenty years old(A) when he died, yet his eyes were not weak(B) nor his strength gone.(C)

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David in His Old Age

King David was now very old, and no matter how many blankets covered him, he could not keep warm.

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Adonijah Sets Himself Up as King

When King David was very old, he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him.

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24 And though they are great now,
    in a moment they will be gone like all others,
    cut off like heads of grain.

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24 For a little while they are exalted, and then they are gone;(A)
    they are brought low and gathered up like all others;(B)
    they are cut off like heads of grain.(C)

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10 “But when people die, their strength is gone.
    They breathe their last, and then where are they?

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10 But a man dies and is laid low;(A)
    he breathes his last and is no more.(B)

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12 My life has been blown away
    like a shepherd’s tent in a storm.
It has been cut short,
    as when a weaver cuts cloth from a loom.
    Suddenly, my life was over.

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12 Like a shepherd’s tent(A) my house
    has been pulled down(B) and taken from me.
Like a weaver I have rolled(C) up my life,
    and he has cut me off from the loom;(D)
    day and night(E) you made an end of me.

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Remember him before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is dim to your old eyes, and rain clouds continually darken your sky. Remember him before your legs—the guards of your house—start to tremble; and before your shoulders—the strong men—stoop. Remember him before your teeth—your few remaining servants—stop grinding; and before your eyes—the women looking through the windows—see dimly.

Remember him before the door to life’s opportunities is closed and the sound of work fades. Now you rise at the first chirping of the birds, but then all their sounds will grow faint.

Remember him before you become fearful of falling and worry about danger in the streets; before your hair turns white like an almond tree in bloom, and you drag along without energy like a dying grasshopper, and the caperberry no longer inspires sexual desire. Remember him before you near the grave, your everlasting home, when the mourners will weep at your funeral.

Yes, remember your Creator now while you are young, before the silver cord of life snaps and the golden bowl is broken. Don’t wait until the water jar is smashed at the spring and the pulley is broken at the well. For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.

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before the sun and the light
    and the moon and the stars grow dark,
    and the clouds return after the rain;
when the keepers of the house tremble,
    and the strong men stoop,
when the grinders cease because they are few,
    and those looking through the windows grow dim;
when the doors to the street are closed
    and the sound of grinding fades;
when people rise up at the sound of birds,
    but all their songs grow faint;(A)
when people are afraid of heights
    and of dangers in the streets;
when the almond tree blossoms
    and the grasshopper drags itself along
    and desire no longer is stirred.
Then people go to their eternal home(B)
    and mourners(C) go about the streets.

Remember him—before the silver cord is severed,
    and the golden bowl is broken;
before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,
    and the wheel broken at the well,
and the dust returns(D) to the ground it came from,
    and the spirit returns to God(E) who gave it.(F)

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20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you worked for?’

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20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool!(A) This very night your life will be demanded from you.(B) Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’(C)

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They will fade like a dream and not be found.
    They will vanish like a vision in the night.

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Like a dream(A) he flies away,(B) no more to be found,
    banished(C) like a vision of the night.(D)

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