Psalms 103:15-16

103:15 A person’s life is like grass. ¹ 

Like a flower in the field it flourishes,

103:16 but when the hot wind ²  blows by, it disappears,

and one can no longer even spot the place where it once grew.

Isaiah 40:6

40:6 A voice says, “Cry out!”

Another asks, ³  “What should I cry out?”

The first voice responds: ⁴  “All people are like grass, ⁵ 

and all their promises ⁶  are like the flowers in the field.

James 1:10-11

1:10 But the rich person’s pride should be in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a wildflower in the meadow. ⁷  1:11 For the sun rises with its heat and dries up the meadow; the petal of the flower falls off and its beauty is lost forever. ⁸  So also the rich person in the midst of his pursuits will wither away.

James 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From James, ⁹  a slave ¹⁰  of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. ¹¹  Greetings!

James 1:24

1:24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets ¹²  what sort of person he was.

¹ 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.

² tn Heb “[the] wind.” The word “hot” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

³ tn Heb “and he says.” Apparently a second “voice” responds to the command of the first “voice.”

⁴ tn The words “the first voice responds” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The first voice tells the second one what to declare.

⁵ tn Heb “all flesh is grass.” The point of the metaphor is explained in v. 7.

⁶ 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.

⁷ tn Grk “a flower of grass.”

⁸ tn Or “perishes,” “is destroyed.”

⁹ tn Grk “James.” The word “From” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ 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.

¹² tn Grk “and he has gone out and immediately has forgotten.”