For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers.
Parallel translations
- WEB For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.
- KJV For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.
- NKJV For my days are consumed like smoke, And my bones are burned like a hearth.
- NASB For my days have ended in smoke, And my bones have been scorched like a hearth.
- NLT For my days disappear like smoke, and my bones burn like red-hot coals.
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 vanish like smoke and his bones burn like a hearth. He describes how affliction is consuming his life.
Overview
Vivid imagery conveys the fleeting, wasting nature of the psalmist's suffering. Smoke pictures the brevity of life, and burning bones the fever and pain that grip him. Such lament gives voice to deep human suffering and teaches that we may bring even our wasting away to God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Jas 4:14You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
- Lam 1:13He sent fire from on high, and it overpowered my bones. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all the day long.
- Ps 31:10For my life is consumed with grief and my years with groaning; my iniquity has drained my strength, and my bones are wasting away.
- Job 30:30My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.
- Ps 37:20But the wicked and enemies of the LORD will perish like the glory of the fields. They will vanish; like smoke they will fade away.
- Lam 3:4He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones.
- Ps 22:14–15I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.
- Ps 119:83Though I am like a wineskin dried up by smoke, I do not forget Your statutes.
- Ps 38:3There is no soundness in my body because of Your anger; there is no rest in my bones because of my sin.
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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 102:3 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.