“Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.
- KJV Man that is born of a woman is of few 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 5:7Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
- Eccl 2:23Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.
- Job 25:4How then can a man be just before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
- Job 7:1“Is not man consigned to labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired hand?
- Matt 11:11Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
- Job 15:14What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
- Job 9:25My days are swifter than a runner; they flee without seeing good.
- Job 7:6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.
- 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.”
- Ps 51:5Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
- Eccl 2:17So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
- Ps 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
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.