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Our suffering isn't caused
    by the failure of crops;

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For hardship does not spring from the soil,
    nor does trouble sprout from the ground.(A)

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it's all part of life,
    like sparks shooting skyward.

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Yet man is born to trouble(A)
    as surely as sparks fly upward.

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Job Continues

Why Is Life So Hard?

Why is life so hard?
    Why do we suffer?
We are slaves in search of shade;
we are laborers longing
    for our wages.
God has made my days drag on
    and my nights miserable.

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“Do not mortals have hard service(A) on earth?(B)
    Are not their days like those of hired laborers?(C)
Like a slave longing for the evening shadows,(D)
    or a hired laborer waiting to be paid,(E)
so I have been allotted months of futility,
    and nights of misery have been assigned to me.(F)

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Job Continues His Prayer

Life Is Short and Sorrowful

14 (A) Life is short and sorrowful
    for every living soul.

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14 “Mortals, born of woman,(A)
    are of few days(B) and full of trouble.(C)

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