² For like grass, they soon fade away.
    Like spring flowers, they soon wither.

⁵ You sweep people away like dreams that disappear.
    They are like grass that springs up in the morning.
⁶ In the morning it blooms and flourishes,
    but by evening it is dry and withered.

² We blossom like a flower and then wither.
    Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear.

⁷ Though the wicked sprout like weeds
    and evildoers flourish,
    they will be destroyed forever.

⁵ the triumph of the wicked has been short lived
    and the joy of the godless has been only temporary?
⁶ Though the pride of the godless reaches to the heavens
    and their heads touch the clouds,
⁷ yet they will vanish forever,
    thrown away like their own dung.
Those who knew them will ask,
    ‘Where are they?’
⁸ They will fade like a dream and not be found.
    They will vanish like a vision in the night.
⁹ Those who once saw them will see them no more.
    Their families will never see them again.

⁵ May all who hate Jerusalem^[a]
    be turned back in shameful defeat.
⁶ May they be as useless as grass on a rooftop,
    turning yellow when only half grown,
⁷ ignored by the harvester,
    despised by the binder.

¹⁷ Then I went into your sanctuary, O God,
    and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked.
¹⁸ Truly, you put them on a slippery path
    and send them sliding over the cliff to destruction.
¹⁹ In an instant they are destroyed,
    completely swept away by terrors.
²⁰ When you arise, O Lord,
    you will laugh at their silly ideas
    as a person laughs at dreams in the morning.

³⁵ I have seen wicked and ruthless people
    flourishing like a tree in its native soil.
³⁶ But when I looked again, they were gone!
    Though I searched for them, I could not find them!

“People are like grass;
    their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades.