New International Version
Psalms 144:4
4They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting 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.
- 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.
- New Living Translation (NLT)For they are like a breath of air; their days are like a passing shadow.
Context of Psalms 144:4
2He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me. 3Lord, what are human beings that you care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow. 5Part your heavens, Lord, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. 6Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy; 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
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Psalms 144:4
- Psalms 39:5You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Everyone is but a breath, even those who seem secure.
- Psalms 62:9Surely the lowborn are but a breath, the highborn are but a lie. If weighed on a balance, they are nothing; together they are only a breath.
- Psalms 89:47Remember how fleeting is my life. For what futility you have created all humanity!
- Job 4:19how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth!
- Job 14:1“Mortals, born of woman, are of few days and full of trouble.
- Ecclesiastes 1:2“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
- Ecclesiastes 12:8“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Everything is meaningless!”
- Psalms 102:11My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass.
- Psalms 103:15The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field;
- Psalms 109:23I fade away like an evening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.
- 2 Samuel 14:14Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him.
- 1 Chronicles 29:15We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
- Job 8:9for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and 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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