James 4:14(vv3, 11)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…
Job 14:2(v11)He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.
Job 19:20(v5)My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
Psalms 42:3(v9)My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”
Psalms 77:4(v7)You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I can’t speak.
Show all 94 cross-references
Isaiah 40:7(v4)The grass withers, the flower fades, because Yahweh’s breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass.
Psalms 38:3(vv3, 10)There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.
Psalms 37:2(v4)For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither like the green herb.
Psalms 109:23(v11)I fade away like an evening shadow. I am shaken off like a locust.
Isaiah 38:14(v6)I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.”
Lamentations 1:13(v3)“From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them. He has spread a net for my feet. He has turned me back. He has…
Zephaniah 2:14(v6)Herds will lie down in the middle of her, all the animals of the nations. Both the pelican and the porcupine will lodge in its capitals.…
Acts 26:11(v8)Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even…
Job 30:30(v3)My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.
Psalms 31:10(v3)For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.
Psalms 37:20(v3)But the wicked shall perish. The enemies of Yahweh shall be like the beauty of the fields. They will vanish— vanish like smoke.
Psalms 144:4(v11)Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.
Proverbs 17:22(v5)A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Lamentations 4:8(v5)Their appearance is blacker than a coal. They are not known in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones. It is withered. It has become…
2 Corinthians 4:9(v10)pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed;
1 Peter 1:24(v11)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;
Revelation 18:2(v6)He cried with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every…
1 Samuel 1:7-8(v4)So year by year, when she went up to Yahweh’s house, her rival provoked her. Therefore she wept, and didn’t eat. Elkanah her husband said…
Ezra 10:6(v4)Then Ezra rose up from before God’s house, and went into the room of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib. When he came there, he ate no bread,…
Job 3:24(v9)For my sighing comes before I eat. My groanings are poured out like water.
Job 30:29-30(v6)I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches. My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.
Psalms 6:8(v5)Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping.
Psalms 32:3-4(v5)When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was…
Psalms 38:11(v7)My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away.
Psalms 69:9-10(v8)For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. When I wept and I fasted, that was to…
Psalms 77:3(v4)I remember God, and I groan. I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed.
Psalms 80:5(v9)You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure.
Psalms 90:7-9(v10)For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of…
Psalms 147:6(v10)Yahweh upholds the humble. He brings the wicked down to the ground.
Isaiah 34:11-15(v6)But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it,…
Isaiah 40:6-8(v11)The voice of one saying, “Cry!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.…
Isaiah 65:15(v8)You will leave your name for a curse to my chosen; and the Lord Yahweh will kill you. He will call his servants by another name,
Lamentations 3:28-30(v7)Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust, if it is so that there may be hope.…
Lamentations 3:39-42(v10)Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. Let’s lift…
Matthew 26:37-38(v4)He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and severely troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is…
Mark 14:33-37(v7)He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly troubled and distressed. He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly…
Acts 7:54(v8)Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.
Acts 9:9(v4)He was without sight for three days, and neither ate nor drank.
Acts 23:12-35(v8)When it was day, some of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until…
Romans 3:19(v10)Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world…
James 1:10(v11)and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away.
Psalms 69:20(vv4, 8)Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found…
Deuteronomy 28:66-67(v7)Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life. In the morning you will…
1 Samuel 2:7-8(v10)Yahweh makes poor and makes rich. He brings low, he also lifts up. He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the…
2 Samuel 12:17(v4)The elders of his house arose beside him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, and he didn’t eat bread with them.
2 Chronicles 25:8(v10)But if you will go, take action, and be strong for the battle. God will overthrow you before the enemy; for God has power to help, and to…
Job 6:4(v4)For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.
Job 7:13-16(v7)When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me. My couch will ease my complaint;’ then you scare me with dreams, and terrify me through visions: so…
Job 10:1(v4)“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Job 33:20(v4)so that his life abhors bread, and his soul dainty food.
Psalms 2:1(v8)Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?
Psalms 6:2-3(v4)Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint. Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled. My soul is also in great anguish. But you, Yahweh—how…
Psalms 6:6(v5)I am weary with my groaning. Every night I flood my bed. I drench my couch with my tears.
Psalms 22:2(v7)My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent.
Psalms 22:14-15(v3)I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a…
Psalms 30:6-7(v10)As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.” You, Yahweh, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong; but when you…
Psalms 31:11-13(v8)Because of all my adversaries I have become utterly contemptible to my neighbors, a horror to my acquaintances. Those who saw me on the…
Psalms 38:8-10(v5)I am faint and severely bruised. I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart. Lord, all my desire is before you. My groaning is not…
Psalms 38:18(v10)For I will declare my iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin.
Psalms 39:5-6(v11)Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” “Surely every man…
Psalms 39:11(v10)When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, you consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.”
Psalms 42:6(v4)My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.
Psalms 55:3(v8)because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring suffering on me. In anger they hold a grudge…
Psalms 55:4-5(v4)My heart is severely pained within me. The terrors of death have fallen on me. Fearfulness and trembling have come on me. Horror has…
Psalms 69:21(v9)They also gave me poison for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.
Psalms 73:18-20(v10)Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction. How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away…
Psalms 89:51(v8)With which your enemies have mocked, Yahweh, with which they have mocked the footsteps of your anointed one.
Psalms 102:3-4(v11)For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch. My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my…
Psalms 102:9(v4)For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,
Psalms 102:11(v4)My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.
Psalms 119:83(v3)For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke. I don’t forget your statutes.
Psalms 130:6(v7)My soul longs for the Lord more than watchmen long for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
Psalms 143:3-4(v4)For the enemy pursues my soul. He has struck my life down to the ground. He has made me live in dark places, as those who have been long…
Ecclesiastes 6:12(v11)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…
Isaiah 44:20(v9)He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”
Jeremiah 29:22(v8)A curse will be taken up about them by all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, ‘Yahweh make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab,…
Lamentations 1:18(v10)“Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young…
Lamentations 3:4(v3)He has made my flesh and my skin old. He has broken my bones.
Lamentations 3:13(v4)He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
Lamentations 3:15-16(v9)He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood. He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes.
Lamentations 3:20(v4)My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
Lamentations 3:48-49(v9)My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. My eye pours down and doesn’t cease, without any…
Lamentations 5:16(v10)The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!
Daniel 9:8-14(v10)Lord, to us belongs confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord…
Micah 1:8(v6)For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will howl like the jackals, and moan like the daughters of owls.
Micah 1:10(v9)Don’t tell it in Gath. Don’t weep at all. At Beth Ophrah I have rolled myself in the dust.
Micah 7:17(v9)They will lick the dust like a serpent. Like crawling things of the earth they shall come trembling out of their dens. They will come with…
Luke 6:11(v8)But they were filled with rage, and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus.
Romans 15:3(v8)For even Christ didn’t please himself. But, as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.”
94 distinct cross-references across this passage (97 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (16 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 113 For my days are consumed like smoke These…
3 For my days are consumed like smoke These expressions are hyperbolical, but still they show how deeply the desolation of the Church ought to wound the hearts of the people of God. Let every man, therefore, carefully examine himself on this head. If we do not prefer the Church to all the other objects of our solicitude, we are unworthy of being accounted among her members. Whenever we meet with such forms of expression as these, let us remember that they reproach our slothfulness in not being affected with the afflictions of the Church as we ought. The Psalmist compares his days to smoke, and his bones to the stones of the hearth, which, in the course of time, are consumed by the fire. By bones he means the strength of man. And, were not men devoid of feeling, such a melancholy spectacle of the wrath of God would assuredly have the effect of drying up their bones, and wasting away their whole rigor.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10These excessive kinds of speech show how much the…
These excessive kinds of speech show how much the affliction of the Church ought to wound the hearts of the godly.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv3–11Psa 102:3 For my days are consumed like smoke,…
Psa 102:3 For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.
Ver. 3. For my days are consumed like smoke] Which the higher it mounteth the sooner it vanisheth. Some read it, in the smoke. So Psa 119:83, "I am become like a bottle in the smoke," dried and withered, exsuccus et exsanguis.
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And my bones are burnt as an hearth] Ossa mea quasi frixa contabuerunt. My strength is gone, Veluti sartagines (Arab.). Here, to the twelfth verse, is a most lively picture of a dejected person, such as can hardly be paralleled; teaching us to be deeply affected with the Church’s afflictions.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv3–11Like smoke; which passeth away in obscurity, and swiftly,…
Like smoke; which passeth away in obscurity, and swiftly, and irrecoverably. Or, into smoke; as wood or any combustible matter put into the fire wasteth away in smoke and ashes.
My bones; the most strong and solid parts of my body, which seemed safest from the fire.
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Are burnt as an hearth; either as an hearth is heated or burnt up by the coals which are laid upon it; or as the hearth, being so heated, burns up that which is put upon it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv3–11My heart is smitten, and withered like grass,.... Like…
My heart is smitten, and withered like grass,.... Like grass in the summer solstice (d), which being smitten with the heat of the sun, or by some blast of thunder and lightning, is dried up, and withers away; so his heart was smitten with a sense of sin, and of God's wrath and displeasure at him, and with the heat of affliction and trouble, that it failed him, and he could not look up with joy and comfort:
so that I forget to eat my bread; sometimes, through grief and trouble, persons refuse to eat bread, as Jonathan and Ahab, which is a voluntary act, and purposely done; but here, in the psalmist, there was such a loss of appetite, through sorrow, that he forgot his stated meals, having no manner of inclination to food: some understand this of spiritual food, the bread of life, refusing to be comforted with it; so the Targum,
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv3, 5, 6, 9, 10An hearth - An hearth is heated or burnt…
An hearth - An hearth is heated or burnt by the coals which are laid upon it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11Verse 3. My days are consumed like smoke] He…
Verse 3. My days are consumed like smoke] He represents himself (for the psalmist speaks in the name of the people) under the notion of a pile of combustible matter, placed upon a fire, which soon consumes it; part flying away in smoke, and the residue lying on the hearth in the form of charred coal and ashes. The Chaldeans were the fire, and the captive Jews the fuel, thus converted into smoke and ashes.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv4, 8, 9, 11Psa 102:4-7. My heart is withered like grass —…
Psa 102:4-7. My heart is withered like grass — Which is smitten and withered by the heat of the sun, either while it stands, or after it is cut down. So that I forget to eat my bread — Because my mind is wholly swallowed up with the contemplation of my own miseries. My bones cleave to my skin — My flesh being quite consumed with excessive sorrow. I am like a pelican in the wilderness — “There are two species of pelicans, one of which lives in the water on fish, the other in the wilderness, upon serpents and reptiles.” The word קאת, kaath, here used, is rendered cormorant, (which is a corruption of corvorant,) Isa 34:11; Zep 2:14. “By the owl of the desert many understand the bittern, and by the bird that sits solitary on the house-top, the owl.” Dr. Waterland and Houbigant, instead of sparrow alone, read the solitary bird; and the latter, for pelican, reads onocrotalus.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv3–11For my days are consumed like smoke - Margin,…
For my days are consumed like smoke - Margin, “into smoke.” Literally, “in smoke.” That is, They vanish as smoke; they pass away and become nothing; they are spent in affliction, and seem to accomplish nothing. The idea is, that in his affliction he seemed to accomplish none of the ends of life. His life seemed to be wasted. This is often the feeling in trial: and yet in trial a man may be more useful, he may do more to accomplish the real ends of life, he may do more to illustrate the power and excellence of religion, than he ever did in the days of prosperity.
And my bones are burned as an hearth - Or rather, as faggots or fuel. Literally, “They are burned as a burning.” The idea is, that in his troubles, his very bones, the most solid and substantial part of himself, seemed to be consumed and to waste away. See the notes at Psa 31:10.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv3–113. My days are consumed like smoke—Or, My days…
3. My days are consumed like smoke—Or, My days have ended in smoke. Life, once so real, so desirable, has passed away like “smoke,” which dissolves and disappears. The same is an Eastern proverb to this day.
Burned as a hearth—Consumed like a fagot. The judgments of God have dried up my bones like a fagot, or brand, in the fire. Psa_69:3
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv3–113. like smoke] Or, in smoke, a natural figure…
3. like smoke] Or, in smoke, a natural figure for speedy and complete disappearance. Cp. Psa_37:20; Jas_4:14.
are burnt as a hearth] Rather (cp. P.B.V. and R.V.), burn as a firebrand. He compares himself to a sick man whose strength is being consumed by the burning heat of fever. Cp. Psa_22:15; Jer_20:9.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv3–11(3) Like smoke.—Or, in smoke. (See margin. Comp. Psa_37:20.)
(3) Like smoke.—Or, in smoke. (See margin. Comp. Psa_37:20.)
Hearth.—Better, a brand or fuel; so LXX. and Vulgate, Aquila, and this meaning suits Isa_33:14. (For the image see Psa_22:15; Psa_31:10; Psa_32:3.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11For my days are consumed like smoke; or, according…
For my days are consumed like smoke; or, according to another reading (rvb, instead of rvk), "are consumed into smoke," i.e. "disappear, pass away into nothingness." And my bones are burned as an hearth. Dr. Kay translates, "My bones smoulder like a firebrand," which is better. (compare the Prayer book Version, and see Lev_6:2 and Isa_33:14) (For the sentiment, see Psa_31:10 Psa_32:3 Psa_42:10)
Vers. 3-5. The depression attending bodily pain.
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The point of this pathetic complaint on which we just now dwell is given in ver. 4. "My heart is smitten, and withered like grass." There may be pain of body, and sorrow of circumstance, but these only become seriously distressing when they affect our minds, our spirits. "As the smitten flower no longer drinks in the dew, or draws up nutriment from the soil, so a heart parched with intense grief often refuses consolation for itself, and nourishment for the bodily frame, and descends at a doubly rapid rate into weakness, despondency, and dismay.
I SOME FORMS OF DISEASE INVOLVE DEPRESSION OF SPIRITS. Certain types of stomach and kidney disease have depression as a necessary symptom. So certain brain and nerve diseases. Then depression is not to be dealt with as a moral, but as a physical, evil. This feature of disease is specially trying to the Christian, who longs to keep ever alive his joy in God. And it makes extremely painful the duties of those who watch and tend the sick. Such may often gain patience for bearing work by treating depression as but a symptom of disease.
II DEPRESSION OF SPIRITS IS OFTENTIMES MISCONCEIVED.
1. By the good man. Often leads him to think he has been deceiving himself, and has never known the grace of God. As well say, when there are clouds in the sky, that they prove we were mistaken when we believed the sunshine warmed us. Varying moods of feeling do not affect spiritual facts. Depressions belong to the sphere of the feelings, the emotions; they do not belong, necessarily, to the sphere of the will. If the will were set against God, we should never be depressed about it.
2. By those who are in relations with the good man. They are easily carried away by his despondencies, and they are filled with fear concerning him.
The low spirited will often say and write bitter things against themselves; and we are always wise to make no decisions about them, and form no opinions concerning them, while they walk in darkness. "At eventide it shall be light.
III DEPRESSION OF SPIRITS CALLS FOR ALL-TRIUMPHING PATIENCE. On those who have to deal with such persons, patience has its perfect work.
(1) We think how much patience the depressed require from their fellows; but
(2) can we conceive aright of the infinite patience God has with them? For at such times they not only say bitter things against themselves, they say bitter things against God. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv3–11Ver. 3. For my days are consumed like smoke.…
Ver. 3. For my days are consumed like smoke. My grief has made life unsubstantial to me, I seem to be but a puff of vapour which has nothing in it, and is soon dissipated. The metaphor is very admirably chosen, for, to the unhappy, life seems not merely to be frail, but to be surrounded by so much that is darkening, defiling, blinding, and depressing, that, sitting down in despair, they compare themselves to men wandering in a dense fog, and themselves so dried up thereby that they are little better than pillars of smoke. When our days have neither light of joy nor fire of energy in them, but become as a smoking flax which dies out ignobly in darkness, then have we cause enough to appeal to the Lord that he would not utterly quench us.
And my bones are burned as an hearth. He became as dry as the hearth on which a wood fire has burned out, or as spent ashes in which scarcely a trace of fire can be found. His soul was ready to be blown away as smoke, and his body seemed likely to remain as the bare hearth when the last comforting ember is quenched. How often has our piety appeared to us to be in this condition! We have had to question its reality, and fear that it never was anything more than a smoke; we have had the most convincing evidence of its weakness, for we could not derive even the smallest comfort from it, any more than a chilled traveller can derive from the cold hearth on which a fire had burned long ago. Soul-trouble experienced in our own heart will help us to interpret the language here employed; and church-troubles may help us also, if unhappily we have been called to endure them. The psalmist was moved to grief by a view of national calamities, and these so wrought upon his patriotic soul that he was wasted with anxiety, his spirits were dried up, and his very life was ready to expire. There is hope for any country which owns such a son; no nation can die while true hearts are ready to die for it.
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Ver. 3. Consumed like smoke, would be better read, "pass away as in smoke, "as if they disappeared into smoke and ashes. Burned as an hearth, is not a felicitous translation, for a "hearth" should be incombustible. Better "burned as a faggot, "as any fuel. The sentiment, My days waste away to nothing, turn to no good account, are lost. Henry Cowles.
Ver. 3. My days are consumed like smoke; or, as Hebrew, literally, "in (into) smoke." The very same expression which David in Ps 37:20 had used of "the enemies of the Lord:" "They shall consume into smoke" (compare Ps 68:2). Hereby the ideal sufferer virtually complains that the lot of the wicked befalls him, though being righteous (Ps 101:1-8). A. R. Fausset.
Ver. 3. My days are consumed like smoke. As the smoke is a vapour proceeding from the fire, yet hath no heat in it: so my days are come from the torrid zone of youth into the region of cold and age; and as the smoke seems a thick substance for the present, but presently vanisheth into air; so my days made as great shew at first as if they would never have been spent; but now, alas, are wasted and leave me scarce a being. As the smoke is fuliginous and dark, and affords no pleasure to look upon it; so my days are all black and in mourning; no joy nor pleasure to be taken in them. And as the smoke ascends indeed, but by ascending wastes itself and comes to nothing: so my days are wasted in growing, are diminished in increasing; their plenty hath made a scarcity, and the more they have been the fewer they are. And how, indeed, can my days choose but be consumed as smoke, when
my bones are burned as an hearth? for as when the hearth is burned there can be made no more fire upon it; so, when my bones, which are as the hearth upon which my fire of life is made, come once to be burned; how can any more fire of life be made upon them? and when no fire can be made, what will remain but only smoke? Sir R. Baker.
Ver. 3. As an hearth. Or, as a trivet, or, gridiron;so the Targum: or, as a frying-pan: so the Arabic version. John Gill.
Ver. 3-11.
1. The causes of grief. (a) The brevity of life. Ps 102:3. (b) Bodily pain. Ps 102:3. (c) Dejection of spirit. Ps 102:4- 5. (d) Solitariness. Ps 102:6-7. (e) Reproach. Ps 102:8. (f) Humiliation. Ps 102:9. (g) The hidings of God's countenance. Ps 102:10. (h) Wasting away. Ps 102:11.
2. The eloquence of grief. (a) The brevit of life is as vanishing "smoke." (b) Bodily pain is fire in the bones. (c) Dejection of spirit is "withered grass." Who can eat when the heart is sad? (d) Solitariness is like "The pelican in the wilderness, the owl in the desert, and the sparrow upon the housetop." (e) Reproach is being surrounded by madmen"they that are mad." (f) Humiliation is "eating ashes like bread, "and "drinking tears." (g) The hidings of God's countenance is lifting up in order to be cast down. (h) Wasting away is a shadow declining and grass withering. G. R.
Psalms 102:4*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv3, 5, 7, 9, 11my days pass away like smoke
my days pass away like smoke
Here "my days" refers to the author's life and the idea of "smoke" is something that quickly disappears. AT: "my life passes away quickly" (See: Simile)
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my bones burn like fire
Here the author refers to his "body" as his "bones." AT: "my body feels like it is burning" (See: Synecdoche and Simile)
My heart is crushed
Here the author refers to himself as his "heart." This can be stated in active form. AT: "I am in despair" (See: Synecdoche and Active or Passive)
I am like grass that has withered
This is another way to describe his despair. AT: "I feel like I am drying up like withered grass" (See: Simile)
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 3 For my days are consumed like smoke These…
3 For my days are consumed like smoke These expressions are hyperbolical, but still they show how deeply the desolation of the Church ought to wound the hearts of the people of God. Let every man, therefore, carefully examine himself on this head. If we do not prefer the Church to all the other objects of our solicitude, we are unworthy of being accounted among her members. Whenever we meet with such forms of expression as these, let us remember that they reproach our slothfulness in not being affected with the afflictions of the Church as we ought. The Psalmist compares his days to smoke, and his bones to the stones of the hearth, which, in the course of time, are consumed by the fire. By bones he means the strength of man. And, were not men devoid of feeling, such a melancholy spectacle of the wrath of God would assuredly have the effect of drying up their bones, and wasting away their whole rigor.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 These excessive kinds of speech show how much the…
These excessive kinds of speech show how much the affliction of the Church ought to wound the hearts of the godly.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv3–11 Psa 102:3 For my days are consumed like smoke,…
Psa 102:3 For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth.
Ver. 3. For my days are consumed like smoke] Which the higher it mounteth the sooner it vanisheth. Some read it, in the smoke. So Psa 119:83, "I am become like a bottle in the smoke," dried and withered, exsuccus et exsanguis.
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And my bones are burnt as an hearth] Ossa mea quasi frixa contabuerunt. My strength is gone, Veluti sartagines (Arab.). Here, to the twelfth verse, is a most lively picture of a dejected person, such as can hardly be paralleled; teaching us to be deeply affected with the Church’s afflictions.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv3–11 Like smoke; which passeth away in obscurity, and swiftly,…
Like smoke; which passeth away in obscurity, and swiftly, and irrecoverably. Or, into smoke; as wood or any combustible matter put into the fire wasteth away in smoke and ashes.
My bones; the most strong and solid parts of my body, which seemed safest from the fire.
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Are burnt as an hearth; either as an hearth is heated or burnt up by the coals which are laid upon it; or as the hearth, being so heated, burns up that which is put upon it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv3–11 My heart is smitten, and withered like grass,.... Like…
My heart is smitten, and withered like grass,.... Like grass in the summer solstice (d), which being smitten with the heat of the sun, or by some blast of thunder and lightning, is dried up, and withers away; so his heart was smitten with a sense of sin, and of God's wrath and displeasure at him, and with the heat of affliction and trouble, that it failed him, and he could not look up with joy and comfort:
so that I forget to eat my bread; sometimes, through grief and trouble, persons refuse to eat bread, as Jonathan and Ahab, which is a voluntary act, and purposely done; but here, in the psalmist, there was such a loss of appetite, through sorrow, that he forgot his stated meals, having no manner of inclination to food: some understand this of spiritual food, the bread of life, refusing to be comforted with it; so the Targum,
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"for I forgot the law of my doctrine.''
(d) "Quasi solstitialis herba paulisper fui", Plauti Pseudolus, Act. 1. Sc. 1. v. 36.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 6, 9, 10 An hearth - An hearth is heated or burnt…
An hearth - An hearth is heated or burnt by the coals which are laid upon it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 Verse 3. My days are consumed like smoke] He…
Verse 3. My days are consumed like smoke] He represents himself (for the psalmist speaks in the name of the people) under the notion of a pile of combustible matter, placed upon a fire, which soon consumes it; part flying away in smoke, and the residue lying on the hearth in the form of charred coal and ashes. The Chaldeans were the fire, and the captive Jews the fuel, thus converted into smoke and ashes.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv4, 8, 9, 11 Psa 102:4-7. My heart is withered like grass —…
Psa 102:4-7. My heart is withered like grass — Which is smitten and withered by the heat of the sun, either while it stands, or after it is cut down. So that I forget to eat my bread — Because my mind is wholly swallowed up with the contemplation of my own miseries. My bones cleave to my skin — My flesh being quite consumed with excessive sorrow. I am like a pelican in the wilderness — “There are two species of pelicans, one of which lives in the water on fish, the other in the wilderness, upon serpents and reptiles.” The word קאת, kaath, here used, is rendered cormorant, (which is a corruption of corvorant,) Isa 34:11; Zep 2:14. “By the owl of the desert many understand the bittern, and by the bird that sits solitary on the house-top, the owl.” Dr. Waterland and Houbigant, instead of sparrow alone, read the solitary bird; and the latter, for pelican, reads onocrotalus.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv3–11 For my days are consumed like smoke - Margin,…
For my days are consumed like smoke - Margin, “into smoke.” Literally, “in smoke.” That is, They vanish as smoke; they pass away and become nothing; they are spent in affliction, and seem to accomplish nothing. The idea is, that in his affliction he seemed to accomplish none of the ends of life. His life seemed to be wasted. This is often the feeling in trial: and yet in trial a man may be more useful, he may do more to accomplish the real ends of life, he may do more to illustrate the power and excellence of religion, than he ever did in the days of prosperity.
And my bones are burned as an hearth - Or rather, as faggots or fuel. Literally, “They are burned as a burning.” The idea is, that in his troubles, his very bones, the most solid and substantial part of himself, seemed to be consumed and to waste away. See the notes at Psa 31:10.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv3–11 3. My days are consumed like smoke—Or, My days…
3. My days are consumed like smoke—Or, My days have ended in smoke. Life, once so real, so desirable, has passed away like “smoke,” which dissolves and disappears. The same is an Eastern proverb to this day.
Burned as a hearth—Consumed like a fagot. The judgments of God have dried up my bones like a fagot, or brand, in the fire. Psa_69:3
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–11 3. like smoke] Or, in smoke, a natural figure…
3. like smoke] Or, in smoke, a natural figure for speedy and complete disappearance. Cp. Psa_37:20; Jas_4:14.
are burnt as a hearth] Rather (cp. P.B.V. and R.V.), burn as a firebrand. He compares himself to a sick man whose strength is being consumed by the burning heat of fever. Cp. Psa_22:15; Jer_20:9.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–11 (3) Like smoke.—Or, in smoke. (See margin. Comp. Psa_37:20.)
(3) Like smoke.—Or, in smoke. (See margin. Comp. Psa_37:20.)
Hearth.—Better, a brand or fuel; so LXX. and Vulgate, Aquila, and this meaning suits Isa_33:14. (For the image see Psa_22:15; Psa_31:10; Psa_32:3.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 For my days are consumed like smoke; or, according…
For my days are consumed like smoke; or, according to another reading (rvb, instead of rvk), "are consumed into smoke," i.e. "disappear, pass away into nothingness." And my bones are burned as an hearth. Dr. Kay translates, "My bones smoulder like a firebrand," which is better. (compare the Prayer book Version, and see Lev_6:2 and Isa_33:14) (For the sentiment, see Psa_31:10 Psa_32:3 Psa_42:10)
Vers. 3-5. The depression attending bodily pain.
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The point of this pathetic complaint on which we just now dwell is given in ver. 4. "My heart is smitten, and withered like grass." There may be pain of body, and sorrow of circumstance, but these only become seriously distressing when they affect our minds, our spirits. "As the smitten flower no longer drinks in the dew, or draws up nutriment from the soil, so a heart parched with intense grief often refuses consolation for itself, and nourishment for the bodily frame, and descends at a doubly rapid rate into weakness, despondency, and dismay.
I SOME FORMS OF DISEASE INVOLVE DEPRESSION OF SPIRITS. Certain types of stomach and kidney disease have depression as a necessary symptom. So certain brain and nerve diseases. Then depression is not to be dealt with as a moral, but as a physical, evil. This feature of disease is specially trying to the Christian, who longs to keep ever alive his joy in God. And it makes extremely painful the duties of those who watch and tend the sick. Such may often gain patience for bearing work by treating depression as but a symptom of disease.
II DEPRESSION OF SPIRITS IS OFTENTIMES MISCONCEIVED.
1. By the good man. Often leads him to think he has been deceiving himself, and has never known the grace of God. As well say, when there are clouds in the sky, that they prove we were mistaken when we believed the sunshine warmed us. Varying moods of feeling do not affect spiritual facts. Depressions belong to the sphere of the feelings, the emotions; they do not belong, necessarily, to the sphere of the will. If the will were set against God, we should never be depressed about it.
2. By those who are in relations with the good man. They are easily carried away by his despondencies, and they are filled with fear concerning him.
The low spirited will often say and write bitter things against themselves; and we are always wise to make no decisions about them, and form no opinions concerning them, while they walk in darkness. "At eventide it shall be light.
III DEPRESSION OF SPIRITS CALLS FOR ALL-TRIUMPHING PATIENCE. On those who have to deal with such persons, patience has its perfect work.
(1) We think how much patience the depressed require from their fellows; but
(2) can we conceive aright of the infinite patience God has with them? For at such times they not only say bitter things against themselves, they say bitter things against God. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv3–11 Ver. 3. For my days are consumed like smoke.…
Ver. 3. For my days are consumed like smoke. My grief has made life unsubstantial to me, I seem to be but a puff of vapour which has nothing in it, and is soon dissipated. The metaphor is very admirably chosen, for, to the unhappy, life seems not merely to be frail, but to be surrounded by so much that is darkening, defiling, blinding, and depressing, that, sitting down in despair, they compare themselves to men wandering in a dense fog, and themselves so dried up thereby that they are little better than pillars of smoke. When our days have neither light of joy nor fire of energy in them, but become as a smoking flax which dies out ignobly in darkness, then have we cause enough to appeal to the Lord that he would not utterly quench us.
And my bones are burned as an hearth. He became as dry as the hearth on which a wood fire has burned out, or as spent ashes in which scarcely a trace of fire can be found. His soul was ready to be blown away as smoke, and his body seemed likely to remain as the bare hearth when the last comforting ember is quenched. How often has our piety appeared to us to be in this condition! We have had to question its reality, and fear that it never was anything more than a smoke; we have had the most convincing evidence of its weakness, for we could not derive even the smallest comfort from it, any more than a chilled traveller can derive from the cold hearth on which a fire had burned long ago. Soul-trouble experienced in our own heart will help us to interpret the language here employed; and church-troubles may help us also, if unhappily we have been called to endure them. The psalmist was moved to grief by a view of national calamities, and these so wrought upon his patriotic soul that he was wasted with anxiety, his spirits were dried up, and his very life was ready to expire. There is hope for any country which owns such a son; no nation can die while true hearts are ready to die for it.
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Ver. 3. Consumed like smoke, would be better read, "pass away as in smoke, "as if they disappeared into smoke and ashes. Burned as an hearth, is not a felicitous translation, for a "hearth" should be incombustible. Better "burned as a faggot, "as any fuel. The sentiment, My days waste away to nothing, turn to no good account, are lost. Henry Cowles.
Ver. 3. My days are consumed like smoke; or, as Hebrew, literally, "in (into) smoke." The very same expression which David in Ps 37:20 had used of "the enemies of the Lord:" "They shall consume into smoke" (compare Ps 68:2). Hereby the ideal sufferer virtually complains that the lot of the wicked befalls him, though being righteous (Ps 101:1-8). A. R. Fausset.
Ver. 3. My days are consumed like smoke. As the smoke is a vapour proceeding from the fire, yet hath no heat in it: so my days are come from the torrid zone of youth into the region of cold and age; and as the smoke seems a thick substance for the present, but presently vanisheth into air; so my days made as great shew at first as if they would never have been spent; but now, alas, are wasted and leave me scarce a being. As the smoke is fuliginous and dark, and affords no pleasure to look upon it; so my days are all black and in mourning; no joy nor pleasure to be taken in them. And as the smoke ascends indeed, but by ascending wastes itself and comes to nothing: so my days are wasted in growing, are diminished in increasing; their plenty hath made a scarcity, and the more they have been the fewer they are. And how, indeed, can my days choose but be consumed as smoke, when
my bones are burned as an hearth? for as when the hearth is burned there can be made no more fire upon it; so, when my bones, which are as the hearth upon which my fire of life is made, come once to be burned; how can any more fire of life be made upon them? and when no fire can be made, what will remain but only smoke? Sir R. Baker.
Ver. 3. As an hearth. Or, as a trivet, or, gridiron;so the Targum: or, as a frying-pan: so the Arabic version. John Gill.
Ver. 3-11.
1. The causes of grief. (a) The brevity of life. Ps 102:3. (b) Bodily pain. Ps 102:3. (c) Dejection of spirit. Ps 102:4- 5. (d) Solitariness. Ps 102:6-7. (e) Reproach. Ps 102:8. (f) Humiliation. Ps 102:9. (g) The hidings of God's countenance. Ps 102:10. (h) Wasting away. Ps 102:11.
2. The eloquence of grief. (a) The brevit of life is as vanishing "smoke." (b) Bodily pain is fire in the bones. (c) Dejection of spirit is "withered grass." Who can eat when the heart is sad? (d) Solitariness is like "The pelican in the wilderness, the owl in the desert, and the sparrow upon the housetop." (e) Reproach is being surrounded by madmen"they that are mad." (f) Humiliation is "eating ashes like bread, "and "drinking tears." (g) The hidings of God's countenance is lifting up in order to be cast down. (h) Wasting away is a shadow declining and grass withering. G. R.
Psalms 102:4*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 5, 7, 9, 11 my days pass away like smoke
my days pass away like smoke
Here "my days" refers to the author's life and the idea of "smoke" is something that quickly disappears. AT: "my life passes away quickly" (See: Simile)
Read full note →
my bones burn like fire
Here the author refers to his "body" as his "bones." AT: "my body feels like it is burning" (See: Synecdoche and Simile)
My heart is crushed
Here the author refers to himself as his "heart." This can be stated in active form. AT: "I am in despair" (See: Synecdoche and Active or Passive)
I am like grass that has withered
This is another way to describe his despair. AT: "I feel like I am drying up like withered grass" (See: Simile)
translationWords
fire
heart
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11 102:3 Smoke is an image of transitory life (37:20;…
102:3 Smoke is an image of transitory life (37:20; 68:2). • The psalmist’s bones represent his whole being (see 6:2; 34:19-22).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.