Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
Parallel translations
- WEB Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes 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.
Quick answer
Man is like a breath, his days a passing shadow. It underscores the brevity and frailty of human life.
Overview
David soberly reflects that human life is fleeting, vapor-like and shadow-quick. This realism about mortality drives dependence on the eternal God rather than self. Recognizing life's brevity, believers are urged to number their days and find lasting life in Christ, who alone conquers death (Psalm 90:12; John 11:25).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 102:11My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass.
- Ps 109:23I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.
- 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.
- Job 8:9(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow:)
- Eccl 12:8Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.
- 2 Sam 14:14For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.
- Ps 39:11When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.
- Eccl 8:13But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.
- Ps 89:47Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
- Ps 103:15–16As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
- Eccl 1:14I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
- Eccl 1:2Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
- Job 14:1–3Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
- Ps 62:9Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.
- 1 Chr 29:15For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.
- Job 4:19How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?
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 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.