My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.
Parallel translations
- WEB My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.
- BSB My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
- NKJV My days are like a shadow that lengthens, And I wither away like grass.
- NASB My days are like a lengthened shadow, And I wither away like grass.
- NLT My life passes as swiftly as the evening shadows. I am withering away like grass.
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
His days are like a lengthening evening shadow, and he withers like grass. He feels his life slipping toward its end.
Overview
The image of a declining shadow and fading grass underscores the brevity and frailty of the psalmist's life. He senses death drawing near. This honest acknowledgment of mortality sets the stage for the psalm's turn to God's eternity in the verses that follow.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 14:2He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
- Ps 109:23I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.
- 1 Pet 1:24For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:
- Ps 144:4Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
- Jas 4:14Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
- Jas 1:10But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
- Isa 40:6–8The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
- Eccl 6:12For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?
- Ps 39:5–6Behold, 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.
- Ps 102:3–4For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 102:11 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.