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The NET Bible®
Psalms 39:4
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- InternationalDevotionals:
- DailyParallel Translations
“Lord, make me aware of my endand the number of my daysso that I will know how short-lived I am.
"LORD, make me to know my end, What is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.
Lord , make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.
"O Lord , make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!
" Lord , tell me when the end will come and how long I will live. Let me know how long I have.
"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].
"LORD, let me know my end, And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.
"Yahweh, make me to know my end, What is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.
Lord, let me know mine ende, and the measure of my dayes, what it is: let mee knowe howe long I haue to liue.
"Yahweh, cause me to know my endAnd what is the extent of my days;Let me know how transient I am.
"Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is.
"Please, Lord , show me my future. Will I soon be gone?
My heart grew hot within me; whenever I thought of it, the fire burned. Then, [at last,] I let my tongue speak:
Make me to know, Jehovah, mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: I shall know how frail I am.
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.
LORD, show me mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know my destiny.
" Lord , how long will I live? When will I die? Tell me how soon my life will end."
"Let me know, O Yahweh, my end, and what is the measure of my days. Let me know how transient I am."
O Jehovah, make me to know my end and the limit of my days, what it is . Let me know how lacking I am .
My hert was hote within me, & whyle I was thus musynge, the fyre kyndled: so that I spake with my tonge.
Jehovah, make me to know mine end, And the measure of my days, what it is; Let me know how frail I am.
Lord, give me knowledge of my end, and of the measure of my days, so that I may see how feeble I am.
My heart waxed hot within me; while I was musing, the fire kindled; then spoke I with my tongue:
Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my dayes, what it is: that I may know how fraile I am.
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.
O Lord, make me to know mine end, and the number of my days, what it is; that I may know what I lack.
LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; let me know how frail I am.
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.
Yahweh, make me to know my end, And the measure of my days, what it is; Let me know how frail I am.
LORD, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it [is]; [that] I may know how frail I [am].
"LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am.
" Lord , remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is.
"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.
" Lord , let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.
Let me know, O Yahweh, mine end, And the measure of my days - what it is, I would know how short-lived I am.
(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.
"LORD, let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is!
`Cause me to know, O Jehovah, mine end, And the measure of my days -- what it [is],' I know how frail I [am].
"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.
" Lord , make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.
Contextual Overview
For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of David.
I decided, "I will watch what I say and make sure I do not sin with my tongue. I will put a muzzle over my mouth while in the presence of an evil man." 2 I was stone silent; I held back the urge to speak. My frustration grew; 3 my anxiety intensified. As I thought about it, I became impatient. Finally I spoke these words: 4 "O Lord , help me understand my mortality and the brevity of life! Let me realize how quickly my life will pass! 5 Look, you make my days short-lived, and my life span is nothing from your perspective. Surely all people, even those who seem secure, are nothing but vapor. 6 Surely people go through life as mere ghosts. Surely they accumulate worthless wealth without knowing who will eventually haul it away."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
But Abram said, "O sovereign Lord , what will you give me since I continue to be childless, and my heir is Eliezer of Damascus?"
He said, "My lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by and leave your servant.
Your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness by sparing my life. But I am not able to escape to the mountains because this disaster will overtake me and I'll die.
Abraham said to his servant, the senior one in his household who was in charge of everything he had, "Put your hand under my thigh
I have oxen, donkeys, sheep, and male and female servants. I have sent this message to inform my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.'"
Esau then asked, "What did you intend by sending all these herds to meet me?" Jacob replied, "To find favor in your sight, my lord."
"No, please take them," Jacob said. "If I have found favor in your sight, accept my gift from my hand. Now that I have seen your face and you have accepted me, it is as if I have seen the face of God.
So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal attendant. Potiphar appointed Joseph overseer of his household and put him in charge of everything he owned.
From the time Potiphar appointed him over his household and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's household for Joseph's sake. The blessing of the Lord was on everything that he had, both in his house and in his fields.
But he refused, saying to his master's wife, "Look, my master does not give any thought to his household with me here, and everything that he owns he has put into my care.
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.
