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Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.
Psalms 144:4 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
  • BSB Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
  • NKJV Man is like a breath; His days are like a passing shadow.
  • NASB Man is like the breath; His days are like a passing shadow.
  • NLT For they are like a breath of air; their days are like a passing 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.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 16

  • Ps 102:11My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.
  • Ps 39:5–6Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.
  • Job 8:9(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)
  • Ps 109:23I fade away like an evening shadow. I am shaken off like a locust.
  • Eccl 12:8“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All is vanity!”
  • 2 Sam 14:14For we must die, and are like water spilled on the ground, which can’t be gathered up again; neither does God take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him.
  • Ps 89:47Remember how short my time is! For what vanity have you created all the children of men!
  • Ps 39:11When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, You consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah.
  • Ps 62:9Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath.
  • Ps 103:15–16As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
  • 1 Chr 29:15For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no remaining.
  • Job 14:1–3“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.
  • Eccl 8:13But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he lengthen days like a shadow; because he doesn’t fear God.
  • Eccl 1:2“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
  • Eccl 1:14I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
  • Job 4:19How much more, those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth!

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (5)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 144:4YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 144:4 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.