Psalms 39:5

For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.

For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher. “All is vanity!”

For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls;

How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?

He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.

What does man gain from all his labor in which he labors under the sun?

For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no remaining.

Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye will no more see good.

though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.

My days are past. My plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.

But if they don’t listen, they will perish by the sword; they will die without knowledge.

Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away and exist no more.”

He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.

It’s burned with fire. It’s cut down. They perish at your rebuke.

Nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the rulers.”

The days of our years are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty years; yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.

My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.

For that which happens to the sons of men happens to animals. Even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so the other dies. Yes, they have all one breath; and man has no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity.

Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.

TEKEL: you are weighed in the balances, and are found wanting.

The days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years.

Are your days as the days of mortals, or your years as man’s years,

Remember, I beg you, that you have fashioned me as clay. Will you bring me into dust again?

“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.

He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.

What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

where then is my hope? as for my hope, who will see it?

“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were.

both low and high, rich and poor together.

A man who has riches without understanding, is like the animals that perish.

Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin.

Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath.

Remember how short my time is, for what vanity you have created all the children of men!

For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night.

You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for it is time to have pity on her. Yes, the set time has come.

I fade away like an evening shadow. I am shaken off like a locust.

I am a stranger on the earth. Don’t hide your commandments from me.

Your statutes have been my songs in the house where I live.

Don’t put your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no help.

He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase: this also is vanity.

For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he spends like a shadow? For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?

Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for of what account is he?

Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me! Who is he who will condemn me? Behold, they will all grow old like a garment. The moths will eat them up.

Yahweh says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, relies on strength of flesh, and whose heart departs from Yahweh.

Why did I come out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

Most certainly I tell you, among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer; yet he who is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God’s will remains forever.

What is my strength, that I should wait? What is my end, that I should be patient?

“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, and the grave is ready for me.

But man, despite his riches, doesn’t endure. He is like the animals that perish.

For he knows how we are made. He remembers that we are dust.

Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

But let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position;

Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are one hundred thirty years. The days of the years of my life have been few and evil. They have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.”

Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’

so am I made to possess months of misery, wearisome nights are appointed to me.

My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.

(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)

“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good.

Aren’t my days few? Stop! Leave me alone, that I may find a little comfort,

In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him.

When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, you consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.”

For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh.

“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”

Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he lengthen days like a shadow, because he doesn’t fear God.

Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity, for that is your portion in life, and in your labor in which you labor under the sun.

Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.

Whereas you don’t know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;