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Read the Bible

New Revised Standard

Psalms 39:4

" Lord , let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Death;   Life;   Wisdom;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Affliction, Prayer under;   Death, Natural;   Measures;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Jeduthun;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Last Day(s), Latter Days, Last Times;   Wealth;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Meditation;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Death;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ecclesiastes, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - English Versions;   Greek Versions of Ot;   Jeduthun;   Psalms;   Sin;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Psalms the book of;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Measure;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Dumb;   Psalms, Book of;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for December 8;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
“Lord, make me aware of my endand the number of my daysso that I will know how short-lived I am.
Hebrew Names Version
"LORD, make me to know my end, What is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.
King James Version
Lord , make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.
English Standard Version
"O Lord , make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!
New Century Version
" Lord , tell me when the end will come and how long I will live. Let me know how long I have.
New English Translation
"O Lord , help me understand my mortality and the brevity of life! Let me realize how quickly my life will pass!
Amplified Bible
"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].
New American Standard Bible
"LORD, let me know my end, And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.
World English Bible
"Yahweh, make me to know my end, What is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Lord, let me know mine ende, and the measure of my dayes, what it is: let mee knowe howe long I haue to liue.
Legacy Standard Bible
"Yahweh, cause me to know my endAnd what is the extent of my days;Let me know how transient I am.
Berean Standard Bible
"Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is.
Contemporary English Version
"Please, Lord , show me my future. Will I soon be gone?
Complete Jewish Bible
My heart grew hot within me; whenever I thought of it, the fire burned. Then, [at last,] I let my tongue speak:
Darby Translation
Make me to know, Jehovah, mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: I shall know how frail I am.
Easy-to-Read Version
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.
George Lamsa Translation
LORD, show me mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know my destiny.
Good News Translation
" Lord , how long will I live? When will I die? Tell me how soon my life will end."
Lexham English Bible
"Let me know, O Yahweh, my end, and what is the measure of my days. Let me know how transient I am."
Literal Translation
O Jehovah, make me to know my end and the limit of my days, what it is . Let me know how lacking I am .
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
My hert was hote within me, & whyle I was thus musynge, the fyre kyndled: so that I spake with my tonge.
American Standard Version
Jehovah, make me to know mine end, And the measure of my days, what it is; Let me know how frail I am.
Bible in Basic English
Lord, give me knowledge of my end, and of the measure of my days, so that I may see how feeble I am.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
My heart waxed hot within me; while I was musing, the fire kindled; then spoke I with my tongue:
King James Version (1611)
Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my dayes, what it is: that I may know how fraile I am.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
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.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
O Lord, make me to know mine end, and the number of my days, what it is; that I may know what I lack.
English Revised Version
LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; let me know how frail I am.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
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.
Update Bible Version
Yahweh, make me to know my end, And the measure of my days, what it is; Let me know how frail I am.
Webster's Bible Translation
LORD, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it [is]; [that] I may know how frail I [am].
New King James Version
"LORD, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am.
New Living Translation
" Lord , remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is.
New Life Bible
"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.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Let me know, O Yahweh, mine end, And the measure of my days - what it is, I would know how short-lived I am.
Douay-Rheims Bible
(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.
Revised Standard Version
"LORD, let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is!
Young's Literal Translation
`Cause me to know, O Jehovah, mine end, And the measure of my days -- what it [is],' I know how frail I [am].
THE MESSAGE
"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.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
" Lord , make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.

Contextual Overview

1

To the leader: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

I said, "I will guard my ways that I may not sin with my tongue; I will keep a muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence." 2 I was silent and still; I held my peace to no avail; my distress grew worse, 3 my heart became hot within me. While I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: 4 " Lord , let me know my end, and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is. 5 You have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing in your sight. Surely everyone stands as a mere breath. Selah 6 Surely everyone goes about like a shadow. Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; they heap up, and do not know who will gather.

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

Genesis 15:2
But Abram said, "O Lord God , what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"
Genesis 18:3
He said, "My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant.
Genesis 19:19
your servant has found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life; but I cannot flee to the hills, for fear the disaster will overtake me and I die.
Genesis 24:2
Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his house, who had charge of all that he had, "Put your hand under my thigh
Genesis 32:5
and I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male and female slaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that I may find favor in your sight.'"
Genesis 33:8
Esau said, "What do you mean by all this company that I met?" Jacob answered, "To find favor with my lord."
Genesis 33:10
Jacob said, "No, please; if I find favor with you, then accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God—since you have received me with such favor.
Genesis 39:4
So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him; he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had.
Genesis 39:5
From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field.
Genesis 39:8
But he refused and said to his master's wife, "Look, with me here, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand.

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.


 
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