Berean Standard Bible
Psalms 144:4
4Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
Psalms 144:4 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
- New International Version (NIV)They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.
- English Standard Version (ESV)Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Man is like a breath; His days are like a passing shadow.
Context of Psalms 144:4
2He 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. 3O 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. 5Part Your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, that they may smoke. 6Flash forth Your lightning and scatter them; shoot Your arrows and rout them.
Read all of Psalms 144Psalms 144:4 word by word
אָ֭דָם לַהֶ֣בֶל דָּמָ֑ה יָ֝מָ֗יו כְּצֵ֣ל עוֹבֵֽר׃Read the interlinear
Cross-references for Psalms 144:4
- Psalms 39:5You, 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
- Psalms 62:9Lowborn men are but a vapor; the exalted are but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
- Psalms 89:47Remember the briefness of my lifespan! For what futility You have created all men!
- Job 4:19how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!
- Job 14:1“Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.
- Ecclesiastes 1:2“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!”
- Ecclesiastes 12:8“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile!”
- Psalms 102:11My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
- Psalms 103:15As for man, his days are like grass— he blooms like a flower of the field;
- Psalms 109:23I am fading away like a lengthening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.
- 2 Samuel 14:14For we will surely 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.
- 1 Chronicles 29:15For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
- Job 8:9For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow.
- Ecclesiastes 8:13Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.
Commentaries on Psalms 144:4
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 4Man is like to vanity - See the notes at Psalm 39:5-6; Psalm 62:9. The idea here is, that man can be compared only with that which is utterly vain - which is emptiness - which is nothing. His days are as a shadow that passeth away - See the notes at Psalm 102:11: “My days are like a shadow that declineth.” The idea is essentially the same. It is, that as a shadow has no substance, and that as it moves along constantly as the sun declines, until it…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 3-4what is man: The same question in Psalm 8:4–6 leads to the answer that humans are only mortal (they do not live forever), yet God gives them honor and responsibility to rule. The psalmist focuses on how brief and fragile human life is. He describes it as temporary and passing quickly (see Psalms 90:3, 7–10; 102:11; 109:23; 146:4).Read the comment
- Rashi on Tanakh · v. 4his days are as a fleeting shadow Solomon said (Ecc. 6:12): “that he do them like a shadow,” but he did not explain whether [this refers to] the shadow of a palm or the shadow of a wall, which are permanent. His father already explained, “as a fleeting shadow,” the shadow of a flying bird.Read the comment
Topics related to Psalms 144:4
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Psalms 144
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- The Treasury of David
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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