Deuteronomy 31:2

31:2 He said to them, “Today I am a hundred and twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, ¹  and the Lord has said to me, ‘You will not cross the Jordan.’

Deuteronomy 34:7

34:7 Moses was 120 years old when he died, but his eye was not dull ²  nor had his vitality ³  departed.

Psalms 90:10

90:10 The days of our lives add up to seventy years, ⁴ 

or eighty, if one is especially strong. ⁵ 

But even one’s best years are marred by trouble and oppression. ⁶ 

Yes, ⁷  they pass quickly ⁸  and we fly away. ⁹ 

Psalms 103:5

103:5 who satisfies your life with good things, ¹⁰ 

so your youth is renewed like an eagle’s. ¹¹ 

¹ tn Or “am no longer able to lead you” (NIV, NLT); Heb “am no longer able to go out and come in.”

² tn Or “dimmed.” The term could refer to dull appearance or to dimness caused by some loss of visual acuity.

³ tn Heb “sap.” That is, he was still in possession of his faculties or liveliness.

⁴ tn Heb “the days of our years, in them [are] seventy years.”

⁵ tn Heb “or if [there is] strength, eighty years.”

⁶ tn Heb “and their pride [is] destruction and wickedness.” The Hebrew noun רֹהַב (rohav) occurs only here. BDB 923 s.v. assigns the meaning “pride,” deriving the noun from the verbal root רהב (“to act stormily [boisterously, arrogantly]”). Here the “pride” of one’s days (see v. 9) probably refers to one’s most productive years in the prime of life. The words translated “destruction and wickedness” are also paired in Ps 10:7. They also appear in proximity in Pss 7:14 and 55:10. The oppressive and abusive actions of evil men are probably in view (see Job 4:8; 5:6; 15:35; Isa 10:1; 59:4).

⁷ tn or “for.”

⁸ tn Heb “it passes quickly.” The subject of the verb is probably “their pride” (see the preceding line). The verb גּוּז (guz) means “to pass” here; it occurs only here and in Num 11:31.

⁹ sn We fly away. The psalmist compares life to a bird that quickly flies off (see Job 20:8).

¹⁰ tc Heb “who satisfies with the good of your ornaments.” The text as it stands makes little, if any, sense. The translation assumes an emendation of עֶדְיֵךְ (’ed’ekh, “your ornaments”) to עֹדֵכִי (’odekhiy, “your duration; your continuance”) that is, “your life” (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 18).

¹¹ sn The expression your youth is renewed like an eagle’s may allude to the phenomenon of molting, whereby the eagle grows new feathers.