Psalms 144:4
2 He is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer. He is my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.
3 O LORD, what is man, that You regard him, the son of man that You think of him?
Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
5 Part Your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, that they may smoke.
6 Flash forth Your lightning and scatter them; shoot Your arrows and rout them.
Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
- KJV
- Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
- WEB
- Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.
- ASV
- Man is like to vanity: His days are as a shadow that passeth away.
- DARBY
- Man is like to vanity; his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
- BLB
- Man is like a breath; his days [are] like a shadow passing by.
- ÅB
- Et menneske er lik et åndepust, hans dager er som en skygge som farer forbi.
- OTB
- Mennesket er som et pust;
Hans dager er som en flyktig skygge. - B1930
- Et menneske er lik et åndepust, hans dager er som en skygge som farer forbi.
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Psalms 102:11
My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
Read in contextPsalms 109:23
I am fading away like a lengthening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.
Read in contextJob 8:9
For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow.
Read in contextPsalms 39:5–6
You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
Read in contextEcclesiastes 12:8
“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile!”
Read in context2 Samuel 14:14
For surely we will die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.
Read in contextPsalms 39:11
You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor. Selah
Read in contextPsalms 89:47
Remember the briefness of my lifespan! For what futility You have created all men!
Read in context