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Read the Bible

New Living Translation

Job 14:2

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

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Death;   Life;   Readings, Select;   Thompson Chain Reference - Life;   Life-Death;   Time;   The Topic Concordance - Man;   Sin;   Trouble;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Death, Natural;   Flowers;   Life, Natural;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Flowers;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Death;   Decrees of God;   Greatness of God;   Hypocrisy;   Life;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Flowers;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Shadow;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Flowers;   Job;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Flower;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Flowers;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for October 19;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
He blossoms like a flower, then withers;he flees like a shadow and does not last.
Hebrew Names Version
He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn't continue.
King James Version
He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
English Standard Version
He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.
New Century Version
We grow up like flowers and then dry up and die. We are like a passing shadow that does not last.
New English Translation
He grows up like a flower and then withers away; he flees like a shadow, and does not remain.
Amplified Bible
"Like a flower he comes forth and withers; He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.
New American Standard Bible
"Like a flower he comes out and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.
World English Bible
He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn't continue.
Geneva Bible (1587)
He shooteth foorth as a flowre, and is cut downe: he vanisheth also as a shadowe, and continueth not.
Legacy Standard Bible
Like a flower he comes forth and withers.He also flees like a shadow and does not stand.
Berean Standard Bible
Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
Contemporary English Version
We are flowers that fade and shadows that vanish.
Complete Jewish Bible
He comes up like a flower and withers away, flees like a shadow, doesn't last.
Darby Translation
He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; and he fleeth as a shadow, and continueth not.
Easy-to-Read Version
Our life is like a flower that grows quickly and then dies away. Our life is like a shadow that is here for a short time and then is gone.
George Lamsa Translation
He comes forth like a flower, and withers and fades away; he flees like a shadow, and continues not.
Good News Translation
We grow and wither as quickly as flowers; we disappear like shadows.
Lexham English Bible
Like a flower he comes up, and he withers away; and he flees like a shadow, but he does not last.
Literal Translation
He comes forth like a flower and withers; he also flees like a shadow and does not stand.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
He cometh vp, and falleth awaye like a floure. He flyeth as it were a shadowe, and neuer continueth in one state.
American Standard Version
He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: He fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
Bible in Basic English
He comes out like a flower, and is cut down: he goes in flight like a shade, and is never seen again.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
He cometh forth like a flower, and withereth; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
King James Version (1611)
Hee commeth forth like a flower, and is cut downe: he fleeth also, as a shaddow and continueth not.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
He commeth vp, and is cut downe like a floure: He fleeth as it were a shadow, and neuer continueth in one state.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Or he falls like a flower that has bloomed; and he departs like a shadow, and cannot continue.
English Revised Version
He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Which goith out, and is defoulid as a flour; and fleeth as schadewe, and dwellith neuere perfitli in the same staat.
Update Bible Version
He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down: He flees also as a shadow, and does not continue.
Webster's Bible Translation
He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
New King James Version
He comes forth like a flower and fades away; He flees like a shadow and does not continue.
New Life Bible
He grows up and dries like a flower. He leaves like a shadow and does not stay.
New Revised Standard
comes up like a flower and withers, flees like a shadow and does not last.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
As a flower, he cometh forth - and fadeth, He fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Who cometh forth like a flower, and is destroyed, and fleeth as a shadow, and never continueth in the same state.
Revised Standard Version
He comes forth like a flower, and withers; he flees like a shadow, and continues not.
Young's Literal Translation
As a flower he hath gone forth, and is cut off, And he fleeth as a shadow and standeth not.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Like a flower he comes forth and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain.

Contextual Overview

1 "How frail is humanity! How short is life, how full of trouble! 2 We blossom like a flower and then wither. Like a passing shadow, we quickly disappear. 3 Must you keep an eye on such a frail creature and demand an accounting from me? 4 Who can bring purity out of an impure person? No one! 5 You have decided the length of our lives. You know how many months we will live, and we are not given a minute longer. 6 So leave us alone and let us rest! We are like hired hands, so let us finish our work in peace.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

like: Psalms 90:5-9, Psalms 92:7, Psalms 92:12, Psalms 103:15, Psalms 103:16, Isaiah 40:6-8, James 1:10, James 1:11, James 4:14, 1 Peter 1:24

fleeth: Job 8:9, Job 9:25, Job 9:26, 1 Chronicles 29:15, Psalms 102:11, Psalms 144:4, Ecclesiastes 8:13

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 4:19 - My head Job 4:19 - crushed Psalms 39:5 - Behold Psalms 90:6 - General Psalms 109:23 - gone Ecclesiastes 6:12 - the days of his vain life Isaiah 38:12 - have cut 1 Corinthians 7:29 - the time

Cross-References

Genesis 10:19
and the territory of Canaan extended from Sidon in the north to Gerar and Gaza in the south, and east as far as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, near Lasha.
Genesis 13:10
Lot took a long look at the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley in the direction of Zoar. The whole area was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the Lord or the beautiful land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
Genesis 14:9
They fought against King Kedorlaomer of Elam, King Tidal of Goiim, King Amraphel of Babylonia, and King Arioch of Ellasar—four kings against five.
Genesis 14:10
As it happened, the valley of the Dead Sea was filled with tar pits. And as the army of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into the tar pits, while the rest escaped into the mountains.
Genesis 14:20
And blessed be God Most High, who has defeated your enemies for you." Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods he had recovered.
Deuteronomy 29:23
They will exclaim, ‘The whole land is devastated by sulfur and salt. It is a wasteland with nothing planted and nothing growing, not even a blade of grass. It is like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger.'
Deuteronomy 34:3
the Negev; the Jordan Valley with Jericho—the city of palms—as far as Zoar.
1 Samuel 13:18
another went west to Beth-horon, and the third moved toward the border above the valley of Zeboim near the wilderness.
Nehemiah 11:34
Hadid, Zeboim, Neballat,
Isaiah 15:5
My heart weeps for Moab. Its people flee to Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah. Weeping, they climb the road to Luhith. Their cries of distress can be heard all along the road to Horonaim.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down,.... As the flower comes from the earth, so does man; as it comes out of the stalk, so man out of his mother's womb; as the flower flourishes for a while, and looks gay and beautiful, so man while in youth, in health and prosperity. Job, doubtless, has respect to his own case before his troubles came upon him, when he was possessed of all that substance, which made him the greatest man of the east; when his children were like olive plants around his table, and his servants at his command, and he in perfect health of body: and as a flower flourishes for a little while, and then withers; no sooner is it come to its full blow, but presently decays; such is the goodliness of man, it fades away whenever God blows a blast upon it; yea, he is easily and quickly cut down by death, like a beautiful flower cut with the knife, or cropped by the hand, or trampled upon by the foot, see Psalms 103:15;

he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not; either as the shadow of the evening, which is lost when night comes on; or the shadow on a dial plate, which is continually moving on; or, as the Jewish Rabbins say, as the shadow of a bird flying, which stays not, whereas the shadow of a wall, or of a tree, continues: a shadow is an empty thing, without substance, dark and obscure, variable and uncertain, declining, fleeting, and passing away; and so fitly resembles the life of a man, which is but a vapour, a bubble, yea, as nothing with God; is full of darkness, of ignorance, and of adversity, very fickle, changeable, and inconstant, and at most but of a short continuance.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down - Nothing can be more obvious and more beautiful than this, and the image has been employed by writers in all ages, but nowhere with more beauty, or with more frequency than in the Bible; see Isaiah 40:6; Psalms 37:2; Psalms 90:6; Psalms 103:15. Next to the Bible, it is probable that Shakespeare has employed the image with the most exquisite beauty of any poet:

This is the state of man; today he puts forth

The tender leaves of hope, tomorrow blossoms,

And bears his blushing honors thick upon him;

The third day comes a frost a killing frost,

And - when he thinks, good easy man, full surely

His greatness is a ripening - nips his root,

And then he falls.

Henry viii. Act iii. Sc. 2.

He fleeth also as a shadow - Another exquisite figure, and as true as it is beautiful. So the Psalmist:

My days are like a shadow that declineth.

Psalms 102:11.

Man is like to vanity;

His days are as a shadowy that passeth away.

Psalms 144:4.

The idea of Job is, that there is no substance, nothing that is permanent. A shadow moves on gently and silently, and is soon gone. It leaves no trace of its being, and returns no more. They who have watched the beautiful shadow of a cloud on a landscape, and have seen how rapidly it passes ever meadows and fields of grain, and rolls up the mountain side and disappears, will have a vivid conception of this figure. How gently yet how rapidly it moves. How soon it is gone. How void of impression is its course. Who can track its way; who can reach it? So man moves on. Soon he is gone; he leaves no trace of his being, and returns no more.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 14:2. He cometh forth like a flower — This is a frequent image both in the Old and New Testament writers; I need not quote the places here, as the readers will find them all in the margin.

He fleeth also as a shadow — Himself, as he appears among men, is only the shadow of his real, substantial, and eternal being. He is here compared to a vegetable; he springs up, bears his flower is often nipped by disease, blasted by afflictions and at last cut down by death. The bloom of youth, even in the most prosperous state, is only the forerunner of hoary hairs, enfeebled muscles, impaired senses, general debility, anility, and dissolution. All these images are finely embodied, and happily expressed, in the beautiful lines of a very nervous and correct poet, too little known, but whose compositions deserve the first place among what may be called the minor poets of Britain. See at the end of the chapter. Job 14:22.


 
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