The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty if we are strong—yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
Parallel translations
- WEB The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.
- KJV The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
- NKJV The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
- NASB As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is only trouble and tragedy; For it quickly passes, and we disappear.
- NLT Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away.
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
A human lifespan is brief, around seventy or eighty years, and even its best is marked by toil before we pass away.
Overview
Moses gives a realistic measure of life: short, laborious, and quickly gone. Even strength's longer span is filled with "labor and sorrow." This honest assessment of mortality presses us to number our days wisely and to seek the eternal life found in Christ (1 Cor. 15:19-20).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Jas 4:14You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
- Ps 78:39He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.
- 2 Sam 19:35I am now eighty years old. Can I discern what is good and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or drinks? Can I still hear the voice of singing men and women? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?
- Gen 47:9“My travels have lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers.”
- Deut 34:7Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak, and his vitality had not diminished.
- 1 Kgs 1:1Now King David was old and well along in years, and though they covered him with blankets, he could not keep warm.
- Job 14:10But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?
- Job 24:24They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain.
- Isa 38:12My dwelling has been picked up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver; He cuts me off from the loom; from day until night You make an end of me.
- Eccl 12:2–7before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is darkened, and the clouds return after the rain,
- Luke 12:20But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’
- Job 20:8He will fly away like a dream, never to be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.
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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 90:10 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
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