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.
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.
- BSB 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
- 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 13:28And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.
- Heb 12:6For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
- Isa 50:9Behold, the Lord GOD will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
- Rev 3:19As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
- 1 Cor 11:30–32For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.
- 1 Cor 5:5To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
- Ps 102:10–11Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down.
- Job 30:30My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.
- 2 Pet 2:16But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.
- 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?
- Hos 5:12Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.
- Ps 38:1–8O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
- Ps 90:7–10For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
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.