For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
Parallel translations
- WEB For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. Its place remembers 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 withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
- Job 20:9The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.
- Job 14:10But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
- Job 7:6–10My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.
- Gen 5:24And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
- Job 8:18–19If he destroy him from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee.
- Job 27:20–21Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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.