You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor. Selah
Parallel translations
- WEB When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, You consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah.
- KJV When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.
- NKJV When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like a moth; Surely every man is vapor. Selah
- NASB “With rebukes You punish a person for wrongdoing; You consume like a moth what is precious to him; Certainly all mankind is mere breath! Selah
- NLT When you discipline us for our sins, you consume like a moth what is precious to us. Each of us is but a breath. Interlude
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 God rebukes sin, He consumes a person's treasures like a moth, exposing human frailty. Again David concludes that everyone is but a breath.
Overview
God's correcting discipline dissolves what we prize as a moth eats away cloth. The repeated refrain 'every man is but a breath' frames David's whole meditation on mortality. It teaches that lasting security is found only in God, not in perishable goods.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Job 13:28So man wastes away like something rotten, like a moth-eaten garment.
- Heb 12:6For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.”
- Isa 50:9Surely the Lord GOD helps Me. Who is there to condemn Me? See, they will all wear out like a garment; the moths will devour them.
- Rev 3:19Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.
- 1 Cor 11:30–32That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.
- 1 Cor 5:5hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.
- Ps 102:10–11because of Your indignation and wrath, for You have picked me up and cast me aside.
- Job 30:30My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.
- 2 Pet 2:16But he was rebuked for his transgression by a donkey, otherwise without speech, that spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
- Job 4:19how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!
- Hos 5:12So I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like decay to the house of Judah.
- Ps 38:1–8A Psalm of David, for remembrance. O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath.
- Ps 90:7–10For we are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your wrath.
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 39:11 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.