Bible Strands
Psalms 90:10
The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty if we are strong—yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses addresses the Israelite community regarding the span of human life under divine judgment. The psalmist contrasts the brevity of earthly years with the weight of God's wrath.
The words — יְמֵֽי־ (ye.mei-) means "the days of" and שְׁמֹנִ֤ים (she.Mo.Nim) means "eighty." These terms quantify the maximum lifespan attributed to human strength before decline.
The thread — The motif of life's brevity appears in James 4:14, which compares existence to a passing mist, and Psalms 78:39, which describes humanity as a passing breeze.
Why it lands — The text states that human days total seventy or eighty years at most, ending in labor and sorrow rather than lasting triumph. Readers must acknowledge mortality as a fixed boundary before divine judgment.
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
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Cross-references
- James 4:14 You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
- Psalms 78:39 He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.
- 2 Samuel 19:35 I am now eighty years old. Can I discern what is good and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or drinks? Can I still hear the voice of singing men and women? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?
- 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.”
- Deuteronomy 34:7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak, and his vitality had not diminished.
- 1 Kings 1:1 Now King David was old and well along in years, and though they covered him with blankets, he could not keep warm.
- Job 14:10 But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?
- Job 24:24 They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain.
- Ecclesiastes 12:2 before the light of the sun, moon, and stars is darkened, and the clouds return after the rain,
- Isaiah 38:12 My dwelling has been picked up and removed from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver; He cuts me off from the loom; from day until night You make an end of me.