Psalms 78:33

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
He made their days end in futility,their years in sudden disaster.

Hebrew Names Version
Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, And their years in terror.

King James Version
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.

English Standard Version
So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror.

New Century Version
So he ended their days without meaning and their years in terror.

New English Translation
So he caused them to die unsatisfied and filled with terror.

Amplified Bible
Therefore He consumed their days like a breath [in emptiness and futility] And their years in sudden terror.

New American Standard Bible
So He brought their days to an end in futility, And their years to an end in sudden terror.

World English Bible
Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, And their years in terror.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Therefore their daies did hee consume in vanitie, and their yeeres hastily.

Legacy Standard Bible
So He brought their days to an end in futilityAnd their years in sudden terror.

Berean Standard Bible
So He ended their days in futility, and their years in sudden terror.

Contemporary English Version
So he cut their lives short and made them terrified.

Complete Jewish Bible
Therefore, he ended their days in futility and their years in terror.

Darby Translation
And he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

Easy-to-Read Version
So he ended their worthless lives; he brought their years to a close with disaster.

George Lamsa Translation
Wherefore their days were spent in emptiness, and their years in impatience.

Good News Translation
So he ended their days like a breath and their lives with sudden disaster.

Lexham English Bible
And he consumed their days with futility their years with terror.

Literal Translation
and He ended their days in vanity, and their years in sudden terror.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Therfore their dayes were consumed in vanite, and sodenly their yeares were gone.

American Standard Version
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, And their years in terror.

Bible in Basic English
So their days were wasted like a breath, and their years in trouble.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Therefore He ended their days as a breath, and their years in terror.

King James Version (1611)
Therefore their dayes did he consume in vanitie, and their yeeres in trouble.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
When he slue them, they sought hym: they repented them, and made God their morninges worke.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And their days were consumed in vanity, and their years with anxiety.

English Revised Version
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in terror.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And the daies of hem failiden in vanytee; and the yeeris of hem faileden with haste.

Update Bible Version
Therefore their days he consumed in vanity, And their years in terror.

Webster's Bible Translation
Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.

New King James Version
Therefore their days He consumed in futility, And their years in fear.

New Living Translation
So he ended their lives in failure, their years in terror.

New Life Bible
So He made their days come to nothing. He made their years end in fear all at once.

New Revised Standard
So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So he ended, in a breath, their days, And their years, in a sudden terror!

Douay-Rheims Bible
(77-33) And their days were consumed in vanity, and their years in haste.

Revised Standard Version
So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror.

Young's Literal Translation
And He consumeth in vanity their days, And their years in trouble.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
So He brought their days to an end in futility And their years in sudden terror.

Contextual Overview

⁹The Ephraimites, armed to the teeth, ran off when the battle began. They were cowards to God's Covenant, refused to walk by his Word. They forgot what he had done— marvels he'd done right before their eyes. He performed miracles in plain sight of their parents in Egypt, out on the fields of Zoan. He split the Sea and they walked right through it; he piled the waters to the right and the left. He led them by day with a cloud, led them all the night long with a fiery torch. He split rocks in the wilderness, gave them all they could drink from underground springs; He made creeks flow out from sheer rock, and water pour out like a river. ¹⁷All they did was sin even more, rebel in the desert against the High God. They tried to get their own way with God, clamored for favors, for special attention. They whined like spoiled children, "Why can't God give us a decent meal in this desert? Sure, he struck the rock and the water flowed, creeks cascaded from the rock. But how about some fresh-baked bread? How about a nice cut of meat?" ²¹When God heard that, he was furious— his anger flared against Jacob, he lost his temper with Israel. It was clear they didn't believe God, had no intention of trusting in his help. But God helped them anyway, commanded the clouds and gave orders that opened the gates of heaven. He rained down showers of manna to eat, he gave them the Bread of Heaven. They ate the bread of the mighty angels; he sent them all the food they could eat. He let East Wind break loose from the skies, gave a strong push to South Wind. This time it was birds that rained down— succulent birds, an abundance of birds. He aimed them right for the center of their camp; all round their tents there were birds. They ate and had their fill; he handed them everything they craved on a platter. But their greed knew no bounds; they stuffed their mouths with more and more. Finally, God was fed up, his anger erupted— he cut down their brightest and best, he laid low Israel's finest young men. ³²And—can you believe it?—they kept right on sinning; all those wonders and they still wouldn't believe! So their lives dribbled off to nothing— nothing to show for their lives but a ghost town. When he cut them down, they came running for help; they turned and pled for mercy. They gave witness that God was their rock, that High God was their redeemer, But they didn't mean a word of it; they lied through their teeth the whole time. They could not have cared less about him, wanted nothing to do with his Covenant. ³⁸And God? Compassionate! Forgave the sin! Didn't destroy! Over and over he reined in his anger, restrained his considerable wrath. He knew what they were made of; he knew there wasn't much to them, How often in the desert they had spurned him, tried his patience in those wilderness years. Time and again they pushed him to the limit, provoked Israel's Holy God. How quickly they forgot what he'd done, forgot their day of rescue from the enemy, When he did miracles in Egypt, wonders on the plain of Zoan. He turned the River and its streams to blood— not a drop of water fit to drink. He sent flies, which ate them alive, and frogs, which bedeviled them. He turned their harvest over to caterpillars, everything they had worked for to the locusts. He flattened their grapevines with hail; a killing frost ruined their orchards. He pounded their cattle with hail, let thunderbolts loose on their herds. His anger flared, a wild firestorm of havoc, An advance guard of disease-carrying angels to clear the ground, preparing the way before him. He didn't spare those people, he let the plague rage through their lives. He killed all the Egyptian firstborns, lusty infants, offspring of Ham's virility. Then he led his people out like sheep, took his flock safely through the wilderness. He took good care of them; they had nothing to fear. The Sea took care of their enemies for good. He brought them into his holy land, this mountain he claimed for his own. He scattered everyone who got in their way; he staked out an inheritance for them— the tribes of Israel all had their own places.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

days: Psalms 90:7-9, Numbers 14:29, Numbers 14:35, Numbers 26:64, Numbers 26:65, Deuteronomy 2:14-16

years: Genesis 3:16-19, Job 5:6, Job 5:7, Job 14:1, Ecclesiastes 1:2, Ecclesiastes 1:13, Ecclesiastes 1:14, Ecclesiastes 12:8, Ecclesiastes 12:13, Ecclesiastes 12:14

Reciprocal: Leviticus 26:16 - consume Numbers 32:13 - wander Deuteronomy 2:15 - the hand of the Job 7:16 - my days Psalms 31:10 - my life Psalms 90:9 - For Ecclesiastes 4:7 - General Ecclesiastes 5:17 - he eateth

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Therefore their days did he consume in vanity,.... They were not immediately cut off by the hand of God, though some were; but the greatest part spent their time, for about eight and thirty years together, in fruitless marches to and fro in the wilderness, and never entered into the land of Canaan, where they were gradually wasted and consumed, till at length all their carcasses fell in the wilderness; see Numbers 14:32, time spent in sin is all waste time, and is spent in vanity; let a man enjoy ever so much of worldly things, it is all vanity and vexation of spirit; if he does not get to heaven at last, his life here is lived in vain; it had been better if he had never been born:

and their years in trouble: or "in terror" a and consternation; through their enemies, who smote and discomfited them, Numbers 14:45, through the earth's opening and swallowing many of them up; through fire coming from heaven on some of them, and fiery serpents being sent among them all, Numbers 16:31. It is an awful consideration, and yet it is true, of some wicked men, though not all, that they have nothing but trouble here, by what their sins bring upon them, and hell at last. Kimchi renders the word here used "suddenly", and interprets it of the sudden death of the spies; so the Syriac and Arabic versions "swiftly", following the Vulgate Latin, which renders it "with haste".

a בבהלה "in terrore", Montanus; "per consternationem aut terrorem", Gejerus; "in terrore et consternatione", Michaelis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Therefore their days did he consume in vanity - He suffered them to spend their days - the days of that entire generation - in vain and fruitless wanderings in the desert. Instead of leading them at once to the promised land, they were kept there to wear out their life in tedious monotony, accomplishing nothing - wandering from place to place - until all the generation that had come out of Egypt had died.

And their years in trouble - literally, “in terror.” Amidst the troubles, the alarms, the terrors of a vast and frightful desert. Sin - rebellion against God - leads to a course of life, and a death, of which these gloomy, sad, and cheerless wanderings in the desert were a striking emblem.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 78:33. Their days did he consume in vanity — By causing them to wander forty years in the wilderness, vainly expecting an end to their labour, and the enjoyment of the promised rest, which, by their rebellions, they had forfeited.