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Monday, July 21st, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Read the Bible

Brenton's Septuagint

Psalms 39:4

O Lord, make me to know mine end, and the number of my days, what it is; that I may know what I lack.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Death;   Life;   Wisdom;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Affliction, Prayer under;   Death, Natural;   Measures;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Jeduthun;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Last Day(s), Latter Days, Last Times;   Wealth;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Meditation;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Death;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ecclesiastes, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - English Versions;   Greek Versions of Ot;   Jeduthun;   Psalms;   Sin;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Psalms the book of;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Measure;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Dumb;   Psalms, Book of;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for December 8;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
“Lord, make me aware of my endand the number of my daysso that I will know how short-lived I am.
Hebrew Names Version
"LORD, make me to know my end, What is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.
King James Version
Lord , make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.
English Standard Version
"O Lord , make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!
New Century Version
" Lord , tell me when the end will come and how long I will live. Let me know how long I have.
New English Translation
"O Lord , help me understand my mortality and the brevity of life! Let me realize how quickly my life will pass!
Amplified Bible
"LORD, let me know my [life's] end And [to appreciate] the extent of my days; Let me know how frail I am [how transient is my stay here].
New American Standard Bible
"LORD, let me know my end, And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.
World English Bible
"Yahweh, make me to know my end, What is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Lord, let me know mine ende, and the measure of my dayes, what it is: let mee knowe howe long I haue to liue.
Legacy Standard Bible
"Yahweh, cause me to know my endAnd what is the extent of my days;Let me know how transient I am.
Berean Standard Bible
"Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is.
Contemporary English Version
"Please, Lord , show me my future. Will I soon be gone?
Complete Jewish Bible
My heart grew hot within me; whenever I thought of it, the fire burned. Then, [at last,] I let my tongue speak:
Darby Translation
Make me to know, Jehovah, mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: I shall know how frail I am.
Easy-to-Read Version
Lord , tell me, what will happen to me now? Tell me, how long will I live? Let me know how short my life really is.
George Lamsa Translation
LORD, show me mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know my destiny.
Good News Translation
" Lord , how long will I live? When will I die? Tell me how soon my life will end."
Lexham English Bible
"Let me know, O Yahweh, my end, and what is the measure of my days. Let me know how transient I am."
Literal Translation
O Jehovah, make me to know my end and the limit of my days, what it is . Let me know how lacking I am .
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
My hert was hote within me, & whyle I was thus musynge, the fyre kyndled: so that I spake with my tonge.
American Standard Version
Jehovah, make me to know mine end, And the measure of my days, what it is; Let me know how frail I am.
Bible in Basic English
Lord, give me knowledge of my end, and of the measure of my days, so that I may see how feeble I am.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
My heart waxed hot within me; while I was musing, the fire kindled; then spoke I with my tongue:
King James Version (1611)
Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my dayes, what it is: that I may know how fraile I am.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
O God make me to knowe mine ende, and the number of my dayes: that I may be certified howe long I haue to lyue.
English Revised Version
LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; let me know how frail I am.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
I spak in my tunge; Lord, make thou myn eende knowun to me. And the noumbre of my daies what it is; that Y wite, what failith to me.
Update Bible Version
Yahweh, make me to know my end, And the measure of my days, what it is; Let me know how frail I am.
Webster's Bible Translation
LORD, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it [is]; [that] I may know how frail I [am].
New King James Version
"LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am.
New Living Translation
" Lord , remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is.
New Life Bible
"O Lord, let me know my end and how many days I have to live. Let me know that I do not have long to stay here.
New Revised Standard
" Lord , let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Let me know, O Yahweh, mine end, And the measure of my days - what it is, I would know how short-lived I am.
Douay-Rheims Bible
(38-5) I spoke with my tongue: O Lord, make me know my end. And what is the number of my days: that I may know what is wanting to me.
Revised Standard Version
"LORD, let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is!
Young's Literal Translation
`Cause me to know, O Jehovah, mine end, And the measure of my days -- what it [is],' I know how frail I [am].
THE MESSAGE
"Tell me, what's going on, God ? How long do I have to live? Give me the bad news! You've kept me on pretty short rations; my life is string too short to be saved. Oh! we're all puffs of air. Oh! we're all shadows in a campfire. Oh! we're just spit in the wind. We make our pile, and then we leave it.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
" Lord , make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.

Contextual Overview

1 I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I set a guard on my mouth, while the sinner stood in my presence. 2 I was dumb, and humbled myself, and kept silence from good words; and my grief was renewed. 3 My heart grew hot within me, and a fire would kindle in my meditation: I spoke with my tongue, 4 O Lord, make me to know mine end, and the number of my days, what it is; that I may know what I lack. 5 Behold, thou hast made my days old; and my existence is as nothing before thee: nay, every man living is altogether vanity. Pause. 6 Surely man walks in a shadow; nay, he is disquieted in vain: he lays up treasures, and knows not for whom he shall gather them.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

make: Psalms 90:12, Psalms 119:84, Job 14:13

how frail I am: or, what time I have here

Reciprocal: Job 7:1 - Is there Job 14:5 - his days 1 Corinthians 7:29 - the time

Cross-References

Genesis 15:2
And Abram said, Master and Lord, what wilt thou give me? whereas I am departing without a child, but the son of Masek my home-born female slave, this Eliezer of Damascus is mine heir.
Genesis 18:3
And he said, Lord, if indeed I have found grace in thy sight, pass not by thy servant.
Genesis 19:19
since thy servant has found mercy before thee, and thou hast magnified thy righteousness, in what thou doest towards me that my soul may live, —but I shall not be able to escape to the mountain, lest perhaps the calamity overtake me and I die.
Genesis 24:2
And Abraam said to his servant the elder of his house, who had rule over all his possessions, Put thy hand under my thigh,
Genesis 32:5
And there were born to me oxen, and asses, and sheep, and men-servants and women-servants; and I sent to tell my lord Esau, that thy servant might find grace in thy sight.
Genesis 33:8
And he said, What are these things to thee, all these companies that I have met? And he said, That thy servant might find grace in thy sight, my lord.
Genesis 33:10
And Jacob said, If I have found grace in thy sight, receive the gifts through my hands; therefore have I seen thy face, as if any one should see the face of God, and thou shalt be well-pleased with me.
Genesis 39:4
And Joseph found grace in the presence of his lord, and was well-pleasing to him; and he set him over his house, and all that he had he gave into the hand of Joseph.
Genesis 39:5
And it came to pass after that he was set over his house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the house of the Egyptian for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was on all his possessions in the house, and in his field.
Genesis 39:8
But he would not; but said to his master’s wife, If because of me my master knows nothing in his house, and has given into my hands all things that belong to him:

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Lord, make me to know mine end,.... Not Christ, the end of the law for righteousness, as Jerom interprets it; nor how long he should live, how many days, months, and years more; for though they are known of God, they are not to be known by men; but either the end of his afflictions, or his, latter end, his mortal state, that he might be more thoughtful of that, and so less concerned about worldly things, his own external happiness, or that of others; or rather his death; see Job 6:11; and his sense is, that he might know death experimentally; or that he might die: this he said in a sinful passionate way, as impatient of his afflictions and exercises; and in the same way the following expressions are to be understood;

and the measure of my days, what it [is]; being desirous to come to the end of it; otherwise he knew it was but as an hand's breadth, as he says in Psalms 39:5;

[that] I may know how frail I [am]; or "what time I have here"; or "when I shall cease to be" u; or, as the Targum is, "when I shall cease from the world"; so common it is for the saints themselves, in an angry or impatient fit, to desire death; see Job 7:15; and a very rare and difficult thing it is to wish for it from right principles, and with right views, as the Apostle Paul did, Philippians 1:23.

u מה חדל אני "quanti aevi ego", Montanus; "quamdiu roundanus ero", Vatablus; "quam brevis temporis sim", Musculus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Lord, make me to know mine end - This expresses evidently the substance of those anxious and troubled thoughts Psalms 39:1-2 to which he had been unwilling to give utterance. His thoughts turned on the shortness of life; on the mystery of the divine arrangement by which it had been made so short; and on the fact that so many troubles and sorrows had been crowded into a life so frail and so soon to terminate. With some impatience, and with a consciousness that he had been indulging feelings on this subject which were not proper, and which would do injury if they were expressed “before men,” he now pours out these feelings before God, and asks what is to be the end of this; how long this is to continue; when his own sorrows will cease. It was an impatient desire to know when the end would be, with a spirit of insubmission to the arrangements of Providence by which his life had been made so brief, and by which so much suffering had been appointed.

And the measure of my days, what it is - How long I am to live; how long I am to bear these accumulated sorrows.

That I may know how frail I am - Margin: “What time I have here.” Prof. Alexander renders this: “when I shall cease.” So DeWette. The Hebrew word used here - חדל châdêl - means “ceasing to be;” hence, “frail;” then, destitute, left, forsaken. An exact translation would be, “that I may know at what (time) or (point) I am ceasing, or about to cease.” It is equivalent to a prayer that he might know when these sufferings - when a life so full of sorrow - would come to an end. The language is an expression of impatience; the utterance of a feeling which the psalmist knew was not right in itself, and which would do injury if expressed before men, but which the intensity of his feelings would not permit him to restrain, and to which he, therefore, gives utterance before God. Similar expressions of impatience in view of the sufferings of a life so short as this, and with so little to alleviate its sorrows, may be seen much amplified in Job 3:1-26; Job 6:4-12; Job 7:7; Job 14:1-13. Before we blame the sacred writers for the indulgence of these feelings, let us carefully examine our own hearts, and recall what has passed through our own minds in view of the mysteries of the divine administration; and let us remember that one great object of the Bible is to record the actual feelings of men - not to vindicate them, but to show what human nature is even in the best circumstances, and what the human heart is when as yet but partially sanctified.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 39:4. Lord, make me to know mine end — I am weary of life; I wish to know the measure of my days, that I may see how long I have to suffer, and how frail I am. I wish to know what is wanting to make up the number of the days I have to live.


 
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