For we are aliens and pilgrims before You, As were all our fathers; Our days on earth are as a shadow, And 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.
- BSB For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, 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 a long shadow. I have withered like grass.
- Lev 25:23“‘The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me.
- Ps 144:4Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.
- Jas 4:14Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.
- Job 14:2He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.
- Ps 39:12“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were.
- Heb 11:13–16These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
- Ps 90:9For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh.
- Ps 119:19I am a stranger on the earth. Don’t hide your commandments from me.
- Isa 40:6–8The voice of one saying, “Cry!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.
- Gen 47:9Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.”
- Eccl 6:12For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?
- 1 Pet 2:11Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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.