Mazmur 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 

Mazmur 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 

Mazmur 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 

Mazmur 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 

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

[39:6]  sn People go through life (Heb “man walks about”). “Walking” is here used as a metaphor for living. The point is that human beings are here today, gone tomorrow. They have no lasting substance and are comparable to mere images or ghosts.

[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.