Psalms 144:4
in Psalms 144Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Man is like to vanity: His days are as a shadow that passeth away.
KJV
Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
⋯
This verse in Psalms 144
Commentary
11 notes on this verseMan is made like to vanity: his days pass away like a shadow. Truly our days are like a shadow. I was a little infant, I was a boy, I was a young lad, I was a youth, I was a man, that is, of perfect age, I was of middle age. While I know it not, I am an old man. Death creeps up upon old age. I am changed daily, and I do not perceive that I am nothing.
This site's exposition
what is man, that You regard him
on Psalms 144:3-4
Verse 3 asks the question of Psalm 8:4 again, what man is and what the son of man is, that God should notice him. Henry set the two psalms side by side: Psalm 8:5 crowns man with glory and honor, and this one gives him a breath and a passing shadow. The word for the breath is hebel, emptiness.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
"Man is made like unto vanity: his days pass away like a shadow." What vanity? Time, which passeth on, and floweth by. For this "vanity" is said in comparison of the Truth, which ever abideth, and never faileth: for it too is a work of His Hand, in its degree. "For," as it is written, "God filled the earth with His good things." What is "His"? That accord with Him. But all these things, being earthly, fleeting, transitory, if they be compared to that Truth, where it is said, "I Am That I Am," all this which passeth away is called "vanity." For through time it vanisheth, like stroke into the air. And why should I say more than that which the Apostle James said, willing to bring down proud men to humility, "What is," saith he, "your life? It is even a vapour, which appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." ...Work then, though it be in the night, with thine hands, that is, by good works seek God, before the day come which shall gladden thee, lest the day come which shall sadden thee. For see how safely thou workest, who art not left by Him whom thou seekest; "that thy Father which seeth in secret may reward thee openly." ...
But if this anomalous state of things were uniform in this life, in which, as the sacred Psalmist says, "Man is like to vanity, his days as a shadow that passeth away,"—so uniform that none but wicked men won the transitory prosperity of earth, while only the good suffered its ills,—this could be referred to the just and even benign judgment of God. We might suppose that they who were not destined to obtain those everlasting benefits which constitute human blessedness were either deluded by transitory blessings as the just reward of their wickedness, or were, in God's mercy, consoled them, and that they who were not destined to suffer eternal torments were afflicted with temporal chastisement for their sins, or were stimulated to greater attainment in virtue. But now, as it is, since we not only see good men involved in the ills of life, and bad men enjoying the good of it, which seems unjust, but also that evil often overtakes evil men, and good surprises the good, the rather on this account are God's judgments unsearchable, and His ways past finding out.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
6 ), who was highly exalted because he humbled himself to be found in fashion as a man, and has authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens
): Man is like to vanity; so frail is he, so weak, so helpless, compassed about with so many infirmities, and his continuance here so very short and uncertain, that he is as like as may be to vanity itself.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
Man is like to vanity,....
4 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
Man is like to vanity. Adam is like to Abel. He is like that which is nothing at all. He is actually vain, and he resembles that unsubstantial empty thing which is nothing but a blown up nothing, —a puff, a bubble. Yet he is not vanity, but only like it. He is not so substantial as that unreal thing; he is only the likeness of it. Lord, what is a man? It is wonderful that God should think of such a pretentious insignificance. His days are as a shadow that passeth away.
Man is like to vanity. Adam is like to Abel. He is like that which is nothing at all. He is actually vain, and he resembles that unsubstantial empty thing which is nothing but a blown up nothing, —a puff, a bubble. Yet he is not vanity, but only like it. He is not so substantial as that unreal thing; he is only the likeness of it. Lord, what is a man? It is wonderful that God should think of such a pretentious insignificance. His days are as a shadow that passeth away. He is so short lived that he scarcely attains to years, but exists by the day, like the ephemera, whose birth and death are both seen by the self same sun. His life is only like to a shadow, which is in itself a vague resemblance, an absence of something rather than in itself an existence. Observe that human life is not only as a shade, but as a shade which is about to depart. It is a mere mirage, the image of a thing which is not, a phantasm which melts back into nothing. How is it that the Eternal should make so much of mortal man, who begins to die as soon as he begins to live? The connection of the two verses before us with the rest of the psalm is not far to seek: David trusts in God and finds him everything; he looks to man and sees him to be nothing; and then he wonders how it is that the great Lord can condescend to take notice of such a piece of folly and deceit as man.
Man is like to vanity - אדם להבל דמה Adam lahebel damah, literally, Adam is like to Abel, exposed to the same miseries, accidents, and murderers; for in millions of cases the hands of brothers are lifted up to shed the blood of brothers. What are wars but fratricide in the great human family? His days are as a shadow - The life of Abel was promissory of much blessedness; but it afforded merely the shadow of happiness. He was pure and holy, beloved of his parents, and beloved of God; but, becoming the object of his brother’s envy, his life became a sacrifice to his piety.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Man is like to vanity - See the notes at Psa 39:5-6; Psa 62:9. The idea here is, that man can be compared only with that which is utterly vain - which is emptiness - which is nothing. His days are as a shadow that passeth away - See the notes at Psa 102:11: “My days are like a shadow that declineth.” The idea is essentially the same. It is, that as a shadow has no substance, and that as it moves along constantly as the sun declines, until it vanishes altogether, so man has nothing substantial or permanent, and so he is constantly moving off and will soon wholly disappear.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אָ֭דָם | ʾadom | humankind | H120 → | 551 times |
| לַהֶ֣בֶל | lahevel | to <the> breath | H1892 → | 73 times |
| דָּמָ֑ה | damah | he is like | H1819 → | 30 times |
| יָ֝מָ֗יו | yamav | days his | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| כְּצֵ֣ל | ketzel | [are] like a shadow | H6738 → | 49 times |
| עוֹבֵֽר׃ | over | passing | H5674 → | 556 times |
אָ֭דָםhumankind
ʾadomH120 →551 times
לַהֶ֣בֶלto <the> breath
lahevelH1892 →73 times
דָּמָ֑הhe is like
damahH1819 →30 times
יָ֝מָ֗יוdays his
yamavH3117 →2304 times
כְּצֵ֣ל[are] like a shadow
ketzelH6738 →49 times
עוֹבֵֽר׃passing
overH5674 →556 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Job 8:9For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow.
it leads to
- Job 14:2
Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- 1 Chronicles 29:15
For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 102:11
My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
- Job 7:6
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.
- Genesis 47:9
“My travels have lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers.”
- Job 14:2
Through
Ecclesiastes 12:8“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile!”
it leads to
- Ecclesiastes 1:2
“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!”
- Ecclesiastes 1:2
Through
Psalms 102:11My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
it leads to
- Psalms 109:23
I am fading away like a lengthening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.
- 1 Peter 1:24
For, “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall,
- Psalms 109:23
About Psalms
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 144; Augustine of Hippo, City of God 20.2; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 7; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; Jerome, Homily 54, on Psalm 143; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.