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]

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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.

Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

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

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47 Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?

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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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Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.

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14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.(A)

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14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

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11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
    and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;(A)
    nothing was gained under the sun.(B)

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11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

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

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

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All our days pass away under your wrath;
    we finish our years with a moan.(A)
10 Our days may come to seventy years,(B)
    or eighty,(C) if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,(D)
    for they quickly pass, and we fly away.(E)

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For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.

10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

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17 Before him all the nations(A) are as nothing;(B)
    they are regarded by him as worthless
    and less than nothing.(C)

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17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

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

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Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

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A thousand years in your sight
    are like a day that has just gone by,
    or like a watch in the night.(A)
Yet you sweep people away(B) in the sleep of death—
    they are like the new grass of the morning:

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For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

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11 When you rebuke(A) and discipline(B) anyone for their sin,
    you consume(C) their wealth like a moth(D)
    surely everyone is but a breath.(E)

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11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.

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14 “Mortals, born of woman,(A)
    are of few days(B) and full of trouble.(C)
They spring up like flowers(D) and wither away;(E)
    like fleeting shadows,(F) they do not endure.(G)

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14 Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.

He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

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25 “My days are swifter than a runner;(A)
    they fly away without a glimpse of joy.(B)
26 They skim past(C) like boats of papyrus,(D)
    like eagles swooping down on their prey.(E)

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25 Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.

26 They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.

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