“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.
Parallel translations
- KJV Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
- BSB “Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.
- NKJV “Man who is born of woman Is of few days and full of trouble.
- NASB “Man, who is born of woman, Is short-lived and full of turmoil.
- NLT “How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble!
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
Job reflects that human life is short and full of trouble. Frailty and sorrow mark every person's days.
Overview
Job observes that 'man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.' This sober meditation on human mortality begins a moving reflection on life's brevity. It captures a universal truth of the fallen condition, while pointing forward to the hope of one born of a woman, Christ, who would conquer death and bring life that does not fade.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Job 5:7but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
- Eccl 2:23For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.
- Job 25:4How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?
- Job 7:1“Isn’t a man forced to labor on earth? Aren’t his days like the days of a hired hand?
- Matt 11:11Most certainly I tell you, among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.
- Job 15:14What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
- Job 9:25“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good.
- Job 7:6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
- 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.”
- Ps 51:5Behold, I was born in iniquity. In sin my mother conceived me.
- Eccl 2:17So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
- Ps 39:5Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 14:1 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.