Isaiah 37:27

37:27 Their residents are powerless; ¹ 

they are terrified and ashamed.

They are as short-lived as plants in the field

or green vegetation. ² 

They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops ³ 

when it is scorched by the east wind. ⁴ 

Job 14:2

14:2 He grows up ⁵  like a flower and then withers away; ⁶ 

he flees like a shadow, and does not remain. ⁷ 

Psalms 90:5-6

90:5 You bring their lives to an end and they “fall asleep.” ⁸ 

In the morning they are like the grass that sprouts up;

90:6 in the morning it glistens ⁹  and sprouts up;

at evening time it withers ¹⁰  and dries up.

Psalms 92:7

92:7 When the wicked sprout up like grass,

and all the evildoers glisten, ¹¹ 

it is so that they may be annihilated. ¹² 

Psalms 102:11

102:11 My days are coming to an end, ¹³ 

and I am withered like grass.

Psalms 103:15-16

103:15 A person’s life is like grass. ¹⁴ 

Like a flower in the field it flourishes,

103:16 but when the hot wind ¹⁵  blows by, it disappears,

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

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. ¹⁶  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. ¹⁷  So also the rich person in the midst of his pursuits will wither away.

James 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From James, ¹⁸  a slave ¹⁹  of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. ²⁰  Greetings!

James 1:24

1:24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets ²¹  what sort of person he was.

[37:27]  ¹ tn Heb “short of hand”; KJV, ASV “of small power”; NASB “short of strength.”

[37:27]  ² tn Heb “they are plants in the field and green vegetation.” The metaphor emphasizes how short-lived these seemingly powerful cities really were. See Ps 90:5-6; Isa 40:6-8, 24.

[37:27]  ³ tn Heb “[they are] grass on the rooftops.” See the preceding note.

[37:27]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew text has “scorched before the standing grain” (perhaps meaning “before it reaches maturity”), but it is preferable to emend קָמָה (qamah, “standing grain”) to קָדִים (qadim, “east wind”) with the support of 1Q Isa^a; cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:657, n. 8.

[14:2]  ⁵ tn Heb יָצָא (yatsa’, “comes forth”). The perfect verb expresses characteristic action and so is translated by the present tense (see GKC 329 §111.s).

[14:2]  ⁶ tn The verb וַיִּמָּל (vayyimmal) is from the root מָלַל (malal, “to languish; to wither”) and not from a different root מָלַל (malal, “to cut off”).

[14:2]  ⁷ tn The verb is “and he does not stand.” Here the verb means “to stay fixed; to abide.” The shadow does not stay fixed, but continues to advance toward darkness.

[90:5]  ⁸ 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).

[90:6]  ⁹ 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.

[90:6]  ¹⁰ 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.

[92:7]  ¹¹ tn Or “flourish.”

[92:7]  ¹² tn Heb “in order that they might be destroyed permanently.”

[102:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “my days [are] like an extended [or “lengthening”] shadow,” that is, like a late afternoon shadow made by the descending sun that will soon be swallowed up by complete darkness.

[103:15]  ¹⁴ 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.

[103:16]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “[the] wind.” The word “hot” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[1:10]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “a flower of grass.”

[1:11]  ¹⁷ tn Or “perishes,” “is destroyed.”

[1:1]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “James.” The word “From” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ¹⁹ 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.

[1:1]  ²⁰ 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.

[1:24]  ²¹ tn Grk “and he has gone out and immediately has forgotten.”