40:6 A voice says, “Cry out!”
Another asks, 1 “What should I cry out?”
The first voice responds: 2 “All people are like grass, 3
and all their promises 4 are like the flowers in the field.
90:5 You bring their lives to an end and they “fall asleep.” 5
In the morning they are like the grass that sprouts up;
90:6 in the morning it glistens 6 and sprouts up;
at evening time it withers 7 and dries up.
92:7 When the wicked sprout up like grass,
and all the evildoers glisten, 8
it is so that they may be annihilated. 9
103:15 A person’s life is like grass. 10
Like a flower in the field it flourishes,
103:16 but when the hot wind 11 blows by, it disappears,
and one can no longer even spot the place where it once grew.
1:1 From James, 14 a slave 15 of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. 16 Greetings!
1 tn Heb “and he says.” Apparently a second “voice” responds to the command of the first “voice.”
2 tn The words “the first voice responds” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The first voice tells the second one what to declare.
3 tn Heb “all flesh is grass.” The point of the metaphor is explained in v. 7.
4 tn Heb “and all his loyalty.” The antecedent of the third masculine suffix is בָּשָׂר (basar, “flesh”), which refers collectively to mankind. The LXX, apparently understanding the antecedent as “grass,” reads “glory,” but חֶסֶד (khesed) rarely, if ever, has this nuance. The normal meaning of חֶסֶד (“faithfulness, loyalty, devotion”) fits very well in the argument. Human beings and their faithfulness (verbal expressions of faithfulness are specifically in view; cf. NRSV “constancy”) are short-lived and unreliable, in stark contrast to the decrees and promises of the eternal God.
5 tn Heb “you bring them to an end [with] sleep.” The Hebrew verb זָרַם (zaram) has traditionally been taken to mean “flood” or “overwhelm” (note the Polel form of a root זרם in Ps 77:17, where the verb is used of the clouds pouring down rain). However, the verb form here is Qal, not Polel, and is better understood as a homonym meaning “to make an end [of life].” The term שֵׁנָה (shenah, “sleep”) can be taken as an adverbial accusative; it is a euphemism here for death (see Ps 76:5-6).
6 tn Or “flourishes.” The verb is used of a crown shining in Ps 132:18. Perhaps here in Ps 90:6 it refers to the glistening of the grass in the morning dew.
7 tn The Polel form of this verb occurs only here. Perhaps the form should be emended to a Qal (which necessitates eliminating the final lamed [ל] as dittographic). See Ps 37:2.
8 tn Or “flourish.”
9 tn Heb “in order that they might be destroyed permanently.”
10 tn Heb “[as for] mankind, like grass [are] his days.” The Hebrew noun אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh) is used here generically of human beings. What is said is true of all mankind.
11 tn Heb “[the] wind.” The word “hot” is supplied in the translation for clarification.
12 tn Grk “a flower of grass.”
13 tn Or “perishes,” “is destroyed.”
14 tn Grk “James.” The word “From” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.
15 tn Traditionally, “servant” or “bondservant.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.
16 tn Grk “to the twelve tribes in the Diaspora.” The Greek term διασπορά (diaspora, “dispersion”) refers to Jews not living in Palestine but “dispersed” or scattered among the Gentiles.
17 tn Grk “and he has gone out and immediately has forgotten.”