Bible Strands
Job 8:9
For we were born yesterday and know nothing; our days on earth are but a shadow.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Bildad addresses Job in a speech that contrasts human limitation with divine wisdom. He speaks at this moment to urge Job to examine ancestral tradition rather than rely on his own understanding.
The words — The Hebrew תְּמוֹל (te.Mol) literally means "yesterday," paired with נֵדָע (ne.Da') for "we do not know," to emphasize immediate ignorance. The phrase צֵל יָמֵינוּ (tzel ya.Mei.nu) translates to "shadow of our days," describing human existence as fleeting and insubstantial.
The thread — This theme of human transience appears in 1 Chronicles 29:15, where David calls the people "foreigners and strangers" whose days are like a shadow. Psalm 144:4 and Job 14:2 similarly compare human life to a passing shadow or fleeting breath.
Why it lands — The text asserts that human life is brief and knowledge is limited, demanding a reader to acknowledge intellectual humility. It asks the reader to stop relying on personal certainty and instead submit to established wisdom and divine authority.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
(For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow:)
Cross-references
- 1 Chronicles 29:15 For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
- Psalms 144:4 Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
- Job 14:2 Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
- Psalms 102:11 My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
- Genesis 47:9 “My travels have lasted 130 years,” Jacob replied. “My years have been few and hard, and they have not matched the years of the travels of my fathers.”
- Job 7:6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.
- Psalms 39:5 You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
- Psalms 90:4 For in Your sight a thousand years are but a day that passes, or a watch of the night.