For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
Parallel translations
- WEB For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no remaining.
- KJV For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.
- NKJV For we are aliens and pilgrims before You, As were all our fathers; Our days on earth are as a shadow, And without hope.
- NASB For we are strangers before You, and temporary residents, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope.
- NLT We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David acknowledges that the people are strangers and sojourners before God, their days on earth fleeting like a passing shadow.
Overview
Echoing the patriarchs (Genesis 23:4) and the Psalms, David confesses the transience of human life and Israel's pilgrim status before the eternal God. This sober awareness fuels generosity rather than hoarding, since earthly possessions cannot be kept. The New Testament takes up this theme, calling believers 'strangers and exiles' who seek a lasting city and lay up treasure in heaven (Hebrews 11:13-16; 1 Peter 2:11).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 102:11My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
- Lev 25:23The land must not be sold permanently, because it is Mine, and you are but foreigners and residents with Me.
- Ps 144:4Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
- Jas 4:14You 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.
- Job 14:2Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
- Ps 39:12Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. For I am a foreigner dwelling with You, a stranger like all my fathers.
- Heb 11:13–16All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
- Ps 90:9For all our days decline in Your fury; we finish our years with a sigh.
- Ps 119:19I am a stranger on the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me.
- Isa 40:6–8A voice says, “Cry out!” And I asked, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field.
- Gen 47:9“My travels have lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers.”
- Eccl 6:12For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?
- 1 Pet 2:11Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.
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Christ at the center
The genealogies and the everlasting covenant with David trace the single thread of promise running through the generations straight to the Christ in whom the line reaches its goal.
How 1 Chronicles 29:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.