90:5 You bring their lives to an end and they “fall asleep.” 1
In the morning they are like the grass that sprouts up;
129:6 May they be like the grass on the rooftops
which withers before one can even pull it up, 2
37:2 For they will quickly dry up like grass,
and wither away like plants. 3
103:15 A person’s life is like grass. 4
Like a flower in the field it flourishes,
104:14 He provides grass 5 for the cattle,
and crops for people to cultivate, 6
so they can produce food from the ground, 7
147:8 He covers 8 the sky with clouds,
provides the earth with rain,
and causes grass to grow on the hillsides. 9
1 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).
2 tn The Hebrew verb שָׁלַף (shalaf) normally means “to draw [a sword]” or “to pull.” BDB 1025 s.v. suggests the meaning “to shoot up” here, but it is more likely that the verb here means “to pluck; to pull up,” a nuance attested for this word in later Hebrew and Aramaic (see Jastrow 1587 s.v. שָׁלַף).
3 tn Heb “like green vegetation.”
4 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.
5 tn Heb “causes the grass to sprout up.”
6 tn Heb “for the service of man” (see Gen 2:5).
7 tn Heb “to cause food to come out from the earth.”
6 tn Heb “the one who covers.”
7 tn Heb “hills.”