Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Man, who 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 5:7Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
- Eccl 2:23For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.
- Job 25:4How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
- Job 7:1Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?
- Matt 11:11Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
- Job 15:14What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
- Job 9:25Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.
- Job 7:6My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
- Gen 47:9And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.
- Ps 51:5Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
- Eccl 2:17Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
- Ps 39:5Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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.