For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow.
Parallel translations
- WEB (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)
- KJV (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow:)
- NKJV For we were born yesterday, and know nothing, Because our days on earth are a shadow.
- NASB “For we are only of yesterday and know nothing, Because our days on earth are as a shadow.
- NLT For we were born but yesterday and know nothing. Our days on earth are as fleeting as a shadow.
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
Bildad admits that the present generation knows little, since human life on earth is fleeting as a shadow. He stresses human ignorance to bolster reliance on the elders.
Overview
In a moment of genuine insight, Bildad confesses human life is brief and our knowledge small. Ironically, this humility undercuts his own confident verdict on Job. The fleeting-shadow image recurs in Scripture (Psalm 144:4), reminding readers that finite humans must depend on God's wisdom rather than their own.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- 1 Chr 29:15For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
- Ps 144:4Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
- Job 14:2Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
- Ps 102:11My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
- 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 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
- Ps 90:4For in Your sight a thousand years are but a day that passes, or a watch of the night.
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 8:9 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.