Psalms 144:4

BSB · Public Domain (CC0)

“Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.”

What this verse means

A short, plain-language explanation of Psalms 144:4 goes here — the kind of answer a reader (or an AI assistant) can quote in one breath. Original meaning coming soon.

Compare translations
BSBPD

“Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.”

Berean Standard Bible · Public Domain (CC0)
KJVPD

“Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.”

King James Version · Public Domain
ASVPD

“Man is like to vanity: His days are as a shadow that passeth away.”

American Standard Version · Public Domain
YLTPD

“Man to vanity hath been like, His days <FI>are<Fi> as a shadow passing by.”

Young's Literal Translation · Public Domain
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Cross references

Other passages that echo Psalms 144:4 — 18 related verses from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

  1. 2 Samuel 14:14For surely we will die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him.
  2. 1 Chronicles 29:15For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
  3. Job 4:19how much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who can be crushed like a moth!
  4. Job 8:9For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow.
  5. Job 14:1“Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.
  6. Job 14:2Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
  7. Psalms 39:5You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
  8. Psalms 39:6Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.
  9. Psalms 39:11You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor. Selah
  10. Psalms 62:9Lowborn men are but a vapor, the exalted but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
  11. Psalms 89:47Remember the briefness of my lifespan! For what futility You have created all men!
  12. Psalms 102:11My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
  13. Psalms 103:15As for man, his days are like grass— he blooms like a flower of the field;
  14. Psalms 109:23I am fading away like a lengthening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.
  15. Ecclesiastes 1:2“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher, “futility of futilities! Everything is futile!”
  16. Ecclesiastes 1:14I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.
  17. Ecclesiastes 8:13Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.
  18. Ecclesiastes 12:8“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile!”

Cross-reference data: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain) via OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

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