19:26 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
37:2 For they will quickly dry up like grass,
and wither away like plants. 5
90:5 You bring their lives to an end and they “fall asleep.” 6
In the morning they are like the grass that sprouts up;
92:7 When the wicked sprout up like grass,
and all the evildoers glisten, 7
it is so that they may be annihilated. 8
102:4 My heart is parched 9 and withered like grass,
for I am unable 10 to eat food. 11
103:15 A person’s life is like grass. 12
Like a flower in the field it flourishes,
129:6 May they be like the grass on the rooftops
which withers before one can even pull it up, 13
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
4:1 Where do the conflicts and where 26 do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, 27 from your passions that battle inside you? 28
1 tn Heb “short of hand.”
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.
3 tn Heb “[they are] grass on the rooftops.” See the preceding note.
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 Isaa in Isa 37:27).
5 tn Heb “like green vegetation.”
6 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).
7 tn Or “flourish.”
8 tn Heb “in order that they might be destroyed permanently.”
sn God allows the wicked to prosper temporarily so that he might reveal his justice. When the wicked are annihilated, God demonstrates that wickedness does not pay off.
9 tn Heb “struck, attacked.”
10 tn Heb “I forget.”
11 sn I am unable to eat food. During his time of mourning, the psalmist refrained from eating. In the following verse he describes metaphorically the physical effects of fasting.
12 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.
13 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).
14 tn Heb “and he says.” Apparently a second “voice” responds to the command of the first “voice.”
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.
16 tn Heb “all flesh is grass.” The point of the metaphor is explained in v. 7.
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.
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).
19 tn Heb “the people” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).
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).
21 tn Grk “a flower of grass.”
22 tn Or “perishes,” “is destroyed.”
23 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.
24 tn Or “you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.”
25 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).
26 tn The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.
27 tn Grk “from here.”
28 tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”
29 tn Or “Fervent devotion to your house.”
30 sn A quotation from Ps 69:9.