For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
Parallel translations
- WEB For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night.
- BSB For in Your sight a thousand years are but a day that passes, or a watch of the night.
- NKJV For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night.
- NASB For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it passes by, Or like a watch in the night.
- NLT For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours.
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
To God a thousand years pass like a single day; His perspective on time is utterly unlike ours.
Overview
God's eternity dwarfs human reckoning: vast spans are to Him like yesterday or a brief night-watch. This frames human brevity against divine timelessness. Peter applies this verse to God's patience and the timing of Christ's return (2 Pet. 3:8-9), assuring believers that God is never slow.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- 2 Pet 3:8But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
- Ps 39:5Behold, 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.
- Matt 24:43But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
- Luke 12:38And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.
- Matt 14:25And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
- Exod 14:24And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians,
- Judg 7:19So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.
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 90:4 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.