For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. Its place remembers it no more.
Parallel translations
- KJV For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
- BSB when the wind passes over, it vanishes, and its place remembers it no more.
- NKJV For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more.
- NASB When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, And its place no longer knows about it.
- NLT The wind blows, and we are gone— as though we had never been here.
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
When the wind passes over the flower it is gone, and its place knows it no more. Human life vanishes swiftly and is soon forgotten.
Overview
Continuing the image of the field flower, David stresses how quickly a life can be swept away, leaving no trace where it once stood. The verse magnifies human transience to set off the unchanging love of God that follows. Only in the eternal life Christ gives does our fleeting existence find enduring meaning.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Isa 40:7The grass withers, the flower fades, because Yahweh’s breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass.
- Job 20:9The eye which saw him shall see him no more, neither shall his place any more see him.
- Job 14:10But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?
- Job 7:6–10My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
- Gen 5:24Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him.
- Job 8:18–19If he is destroyed from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, ‘I have not seen you.’
- Job 27:20–21Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 103:16 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.