Psalms 39:6

39:6 Surely people go through life as mere ghosts. ¹ 

Surely they accumulate worthless wealth

without knowing who will eventually haul it away.” ² 

Psalms 73:18-20

73:18 Surely ³  you put them in slippery places;

you bring them down ⁴  to ruin.

73:19 How desolate they become in a mere moment!

Terrifying judgments make their demise complete! ⁵ 

73:20 They are like a dream after one wakes up. ⁶ 

O Lord, when you awake ⁷  you will despise them. ⁸ 

Psalms 90:9

90:9 Yes, ⁹  throughout all our days we experience your raging fury; ¹⁰ 

the years of our lives pass quickly, like a sigh. ¹¹ 

Psalms 102:26

102:26 They will perish,

but you will endure. ¹² 

They will wear out like a garment;

like clothes you will remove them and they will disappear. ¹³ 

Isaiah 40:6-8

40:6 A voice says, “Cry out!”

Another asks, ¹⁴  “What should I cry out?”

The first voice responds: ¹⁵  “All people are like grass, ¹⁶ 

and all their promises ¹⁷  are like the flowers in the field.

40:7 The grass dries up,

the flowers wither,

when the wind sent by the Lord ¹⁸  blows on them.

Surely humanity ¹⁹  is like grass.

40:8 The grass dries up,

the flowers wither,

but the decree of our God is forever reliable.” ²⁰ 

Matthew 24:35

24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. ²¹ 

Matthew 24:1

The Destruction of the Temple

24:1 Now ²²  as Jesus was going out of the temple courts and walking away, his disciples came to show him the temple buildings. ²³ 

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ²⁴  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

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. ²⁵  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. ²⁶  So also the rich person in the midst of his pursuits will wither away.

James 4:14

4:14 You ²⁷  do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? ²⁸  For you are a puff of smoke ²⁹  that appears for a short time and then vanishes.

James 4:1

Passions and Pride

4:1 Where do the conflicts and where ³⁰  do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, ³¹  from your passions that battle inside you? ³² 

James 1:24

1:24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets ³³  what sort of person he was.

[39:6]  ¹ tn Heb “surely, as an image man walks about.” The preposition prefixed to “image” indicates identity here.

[39:6]  ² tc Heb “Surely [in] vain they strive, he accumulates and does not know who gathers them.” The MT as it stands is syntactically awkward. The verb forms switch from singular (“walks about”) to plural (“they strive”) and then back to singular (“accumulates and does not know”), even though the subject (generic “man”) remains the same. Furthermore there is no object for the verb “accumulates” and no plural antecedent for the plural pronoun (“them”) attached to “gathers.” These problems can be removed if one emends the text from הֶבֶל יֶהֱמָיוּן (hevel yehemaun, “[in] vain they strive”) to הֶבְלֵי הָמוֹן (hevley hamon, “vain things of wealth”). This assumes a misdivision in the MT and a virtual dittography of vav (ו) between the mem and nun of המון. The present translation follows this emendation.

[73:18]  ³ tn The use of the Hebrew term אַךְ (’akh, “surely”) here literarily counteracts its use in v. 13. The repetition draws attention to the contrast between the two statements, the first of which expresses the psalmist’s earlier despair and the second his newly discovered confidence.

[73:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “cause them to fall.”

[73:19]  ⁵ tn Heb “they come to an end, they are finished, from terrors.”

[73:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “like a dream from awakening.” They lack any real substance; their prosperity will last for only a brief time.

[73:20]  ⁷ sn When you awake. The psalmist compares God’s inactivity to sleep and the time of God’s judgment to his awakening from sleep.

[73:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “you will despise their form.” The Hebrew term צֶלֶם (tselem, “form; image”) also suggests their short-lived nature. Rather than having real substance, they are like the mere images that populate one’s dreams. Note the similar use of the term in Ps 39:6.

[90:9]  ⁹ tn Or “for.”

[90:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “all our days pass by in your anger.”

[90:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “we finish our years like a sigh.” In Ezek 2:10 the word הֶגֶה (hegeh) elsewhere refers to a grumbling or moaning sound. Here a brief sigh or moan is probably in view. If so, the simile pictures one’s lifetime as transient. Another option is that the simile alludes to the weakness that characteristically overtakes a person at the end of one’s lifetime. In this case the phrase could be translated, “we end our lives with a painful moan.”

[102:26]  ¹² tn Heb “stand.”

[102:26]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew verb חָלַף (khalaf) occurs twice in this line, once in the Hiphil (“you will remove them”) and once in the Qal (“they will disappear”). The repetition draws attention to the statement.

[40:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and he says.” Apparently a second “voice” responds to the command of the first “voice.”

[40:6]  ¹⁵ tn The words “the first voice responds” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The first voice tells the second one what to declare.

[40:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “all flesh is grass.” The point of the metaphor is explained in v. 7.

[40:6]  ¹⁷ 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.

[40:7]  ¹⁸ tn The Hebrew text has רוּחַ יְהוָה (ruakh yehvah), which in this context probably does not refer to the Lord’s personal Spirit. The phrase is better translated “the breath of the Lord,” or “the wind of [i.e., sent by] the Lord.” The Lord’s sovereign control over nature, including the hot desert winds that dry up vegetation, is in view here (cf. Ps 147:18; Isa 59:19).

[40:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the people” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[40:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “but the word of our God stands forever.” In this context the divine “word” specifically refers to his decreed promise assuring Jerusalem that her suffering is over and his glorious return imminent (vv. 1-5).

[24:35]  ²¹ sn The words that Jesus predicts here will never pass away. They are more stable and lasting than creation itself. For this kind of image, see Isa 40:8; 55:10-11.

[24:1]  ²² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[24:1]  ²³ sn The Jerusalem temple was widely admired around the world. See Josephus, Ant. 15.11 [15.380-425]; J. W. 5.5 [5.184-227] and Tacitus, History 5.8, who called it “immensely opulent.” Josephus compared it to a beautiful snowcapped mountain.

[1:1]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:10]  ²⁵ tn Grk “a flower of grass.”

[1:11]  ²⁶ tn Or “perishes,” “is destroyed.”

[4:14]  ²⁷ tn Grk “who” (continuing the description of the people of v. 13). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[4:14]  ²⁸ tn Or “you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.”

[4:14]  ²⁹ tn Or “a vapor.” The Greek word ἀτμίς (atmis) denotes a swirl of smoke arising from a fire (cf. Gen 19:28; Lev 16:13; Joel 2:30 [Acts 2:19]; Ezek 8:11).

[4:1]  ³⁰ tn The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.

[4:1]  ³¹ tn Grk “from here.”

[4:1]  ³² tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”

[1:24]  ³³ tn Grk “and he has gone out and immediately has forgotten.”