(A)Man is like a breath;
(B)His days are like a passing shadow.

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They are like a breath;(A)
    their days are like a fleeting shadow.(B)

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11 My days are like a shadow that lengthens,
And I wither away like grass.

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11 My days are like the evening shadow;(A)
    I wither(B) away like grass.

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23 I am gone (A)like a shadow when it lengthens;
I am shaken off like a locust.

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23 I fade away like an evening shadow;(A)
    I am shaken off like a locust.

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Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths,
And my age is as nothing before You;
Certainly every man at his best state is but (A)vapor. Selah
Surely every man walks about like a shadow;
Surely they [a]busy themselves in vain;
He heaps up riches,
And does not know who will gather them.

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 39:6 make an uproar for nothing

You have made my days(A) a mere handbreadth;
    the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,(B)
    even those who seem secure.[a]

“Surely everyone goes around(C) like a mere phantom;(D)
    in vain they rush about,(E) heaping up wealth(F)
    without knowing whose it will finally be.(G)

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 39:5 The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verse 11.

For (A)we were born yesterday, and know [a]nothing,
Because our days on earth are a shadow.

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Footnotes

  1. Job 8:9 Lit. not

for we were born only yesterday and know nothing,(A)
    and our days on earth are but a shadow.(B)

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“Vanity(A) of vanities,” says the Preacher,
“All is vanity.”

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“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.[a](A)
    “Everything is meaningless!(B)

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 12:8 Or the leader of the assembly; also in verses 9 and 10

14 For we (A)will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not (B)take away a life; but He (C)devises means, so that His banished ones are not [a]expelled from Him.

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Samuel 14:14 cast out

14 Like water(A) spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die.(B) But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person(C) does not remain banished from him.

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13 But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

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13 Yet because the wicked do not fear God,(A) it will not go well with them, and their days(B) will not lengthen like a shadow.

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14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and grasping for the wind.

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14 I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.(A)

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“Vanity(A)[a] of vanities,” says the Preacher;
“Vanity of vanities, (B)all is vanity.”

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 1:2 Or Absurdity, Frustration, Futility, Nonsense; and so throughout the book

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
    says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
    Everything is meaningless.”(A)

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15 As for man, (A)his days are like grass;
As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
16 (B)For the wind passes over it, and it is [a]gone,
And (C)its place remembers it no more.

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 103:16 not

15 The life of mortals is like grass,(A)
    they flourish like a flower(B) of the field;
16 the wind blows(C) over it and it is gone,
    and its place(D) remembers it no more.

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47 Remember how short my time (A)is;
For what (B)futility have You created all the children of men?

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47 Remember how fleeting is my life.(A)
    For what futility you have created all humanity!

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(A)Surely men of low degree are [a]a vapor,
Men of high degree are a lie;
If they are weighed on the scales,
They are altogether lighter than vapor.

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 62:9 vanity

Surely the lowborn(A) are but a breath,(B)
    the highborn are but a lie.
If weighed on a balance,(C) they are nothing;
    together they are only a breath.

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