Psalm 39:11
New International Version
When you rebuke and discipline anyone for their sin, you consume their wealth like a moth— surely everyone is but a breath.

New Living Translation
When you discipline us for our sins, you consume like a moth what is precious to us. Each of us is but a breath. Interlude

English Standard Version
When you discipline a man with rebukes for sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to him; surely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah

Berean Standard Bible
You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor. Selah

King James Bible
When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.

New King James Version
When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like a moth; Surely every man is vapor. Selah

New American Standard Bible
“With rebukes You punish a person for wrongdoing; You consume like a moth what is precious to him; Certainly all mankind is mere breath! Selah

NASB 1995
“With reproofs You chasten a man for iniquity; You consume as a moth what is precious to him; Surely every man is a mere breath. Selah.

NASB 1977
“With reproofs Thou dost chasten a man for iniquity; Thou dost consume as a moth what is precious to him; Surely every man is a mere breath. Selah.

Legacy Standard Bible
With reproofs You chasten a man for iniquity; You consume as a moth what is precious to him; Surely every man is vanity. Selah.

Amplified Bible
“With rebukes You discipline man for sin; You consume like a moth what is precious to him; Surely every man is a mere breath [a wisp of smoke, a vapor that vanishes]. Selah.

Christian Standard Bible
You discipline a person with punishment for iniquity, consuming like a moth what is precious to him; yes, every human being is only a vapor. Selah

Holman Christian Standard Bible
You discipline a man with punishment for sin, consuming like a moth what is precious to him; every man is only a vapor. Selah “

American Standard Version
When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: Surely every man is vanity. [Selah

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
I am wasted by rebuke for the sake of my sins. You have chastened man, and you have put away his desires like stubble and all the children of men are like a vapor.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Thou chastenest man with rebukes for iniquity, and thou makest his life to consume away like a spider's web; nay, every man is disquieted in vain. Pause.

Contemporary English Version
You punish us severely because of our sins. Like a moth, you destroy what we treasure most. We are as frail as a breath.

Douay-Rheims Bible
thou hast corrected man for iniquity. And thou hast made his soul to waste away like a spider : surely in vain is any man disquieted.

English Revised Version
When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah

GOD'S WORD® Translation
With stern warnings you discipline people for their crimes. Like a moth you eat away at what is dear to them. Certainly, everyone is like a whisper in the wind. [Selah]

Good News Translation
You punish our sins by your rebukes, and like a moth you destroy what we love. Indeed we are no more than a puff of wind!

International Standard Version
You rebuke by chastening a man with the consequence of iniquities; you destroy what is attractive to him, as one would treat a moth. Indeed, every person is a puff of wind. Interlude

JPS Tanakh 1917
With rebukes dost Thou chasten man for iniquity, And like a moth Thou makest his beauty to consume away; Surely every man is vanity. Selah

Literal Standard Version
With reproofs against iniquity, | You have corrected man, | And dissolve his desirableness as a moth, | Only, every man [is] vanity. Selah.

Majority Standard Bible
You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor. Selah

New American Bible
You chastise man with rebukes for sin; like a moth you consume his treasures. Every man is but a breath. Selah

NET Bible
You severely discipline people for their sins; like a moth you slowly devour their strength. Surely all people are a mere vapor. (Selah)

New Revised Standard Version
“You chastise mortals in punishment for sin, consuming like a moth what is dear to them; surely everyone is a mere breath. Selah

New Heart English Bible
When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, You consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath." Selah.

Webster's Bible Translation
When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.

World English Bible
When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, you consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah.

Young's Literal Translation
With reproofs against iniquity, Thou hast corrected man, And dost waste as a moth his desirableness, Only, vanity is every man. Selah.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
I Will Watch My Ways
10Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand. 11You discipline and correct a man for his iniquity, consuming like a moth what he holds dear; surely each man is but a vapor. Selah 12Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. For I am a foreigner dwelling with You, a stranger like all my fathers.…

Cross References
2 Peter 2:16
But he was rebuked for his transgression by a donkey, otherwise without speech, that spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's madness.

Job 11:12
But a witless man can no more become wise than the colt of a wild donkey can be born a man!

Job 13:28
So man wastes away like something rotten, like a moth-eaten garment.

Psalm 31:10
For my life is consumed with grief and my years with groaning; my iniquity has drained my strength, and my bones are wasting away.

Psalm 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

Psalm 80:16
Your vine has been cut down and burned; they perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.

Psalm 90:7
For we are consumed by Your anger and terrified by Your wrath.


Treasury of Scripture

When you with rebukes do correct man for iniquity, you make his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.

When

Psalm 38:1-8
A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance. O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure…

Psalm 90:7-10
For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled…

1 Corinthians 5:5
To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

his beauty [heb.

Psalm 102:10,11
Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: for thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down…

Job 4:19
How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?

Job 13:28
And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten.

surely

Psalm 39:5
Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

Jump to Previous
Beauty Breath Chasten Consume Correct Discipline Form Glory Iniquity Makest Mere Moth Precious Rebuke Rebukes Reproofs Selah Sin Surely Vanity Wasted Wealth Weight Wrath
Jump to Next
Beauty Breath Chasten Consume Correct Discipline Form Glory Iniquity Makest Mere Moth Precious Rebuke Rebukes Reproofs Selah Sin Surely Vanity Wasted Wealth Weight Wrath
Psalm 39
1. David's care of his thoughts
4. The consideration of the brevity and vanity of life
7. the reverence of God's judgments
10. and prayer, are his bridles of impatience














(11) When.--This is unnecessary. With judgments for sin Thou chastenest a man.

Rebukes.--The word rendered "reproofs" in Psalm 38:14, where see Note.

Beauty.--Literally, Something desirable. (See margin.) Thou, like a moth (consuming a garment: see Pr. Bk. Version), causest his desirable things to melt. (For the image, singularly apt. and natural in a country where "changes of raiment" were so prized, and hoarded up as wealth, comp. Job 13:28; Matthew 6:19; James 5:2.)

Verse 11. - When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity. The calamities which God sends on a man are of the nature of "rebukes" addressed to his spirit. They are intended to teach, instruct, warn, deter from evil-doing (see Job 36:8-10). Thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth; or, "thou dost consume, as by a moth, what he prizes;" i.e. his health, his strength, "all wherein he has joy and satisfaction" (Hengstenberg). As a moth corrodes a beautiful garment, so does thy displeasure and heavy hand pressing on him corrode and destroy all which constituted his delight and glory. Surely every man is vanity (comp. ver. 5 ad fin.). This has become a sort of refrain, terminating the second as well as the first part of the psalm (comp. Psalm 107:8, 15, 21, 31; Ecclesiastes 2:1, 11, 15, 19, 21, 23, 26; Isaiah 9:12, 17, 21).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
You discipline
יִסַּ֬רְתָּ (yis·sar·tā)
Verb - Piel - Perfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 3256: To discipline, chasten, admonish

and correct
בְּֽתוֹכָ֘ח֤וֹת (bə·ṯō·w·ḵā·ḥō·wṯ)
Preposition-b | Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 8433: Chastisement, correction, refutation, proof

a man
אִ֗ישׁ (’îš)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 376: A man as an individual, a male person

for
עַל־ (‘al-)
Preposition
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

his iniquity,
עָוֺ֨ן ׀ (‘ā·wōn)
Noun - common singular
Strong's 5771: Iniquity, guilt, punishment for iniquity

consuming
וַתֶּ֣מֶס (wat·te·mes)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hifil - Consecutive imperfect - second person masculine singular
Strong's 4529: To melt, dissolve, be liquefied

like a moth
כָּעָ֣שׁ (kā·‘āš)
Preposition-k, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6211: A moth

what he holds dear;
חֲמוּד֑וֹ (ḥă·mū·ḏōw)
Verb - Qal - QalPassParticiple - masculine singular construct | third person masculine singular
Strong's 2530: To desire, take pleasure in

surely
אַ֤ךְ (’aḵ)
Adverb
Strong's 389: A particle of affirmation, surely

each
כָּל־ (kāl-)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

man
אָדָ֣ם (’ā·ḏām)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 120: Ruddy, a human being

[is] but a vapor.
הֶ֖בֶל (he·ḇel)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1892: Emptiness, vanity, transitory, unsatisfactory

Selah
סֶֽלָה׃ (se·lāh)
Interjection
Strong's 5542: Suspension, pause


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OT Poetry: Psalm 39:11 When you rebuke and correct man (Psalm Ps Psa.)
Psalm 39:10
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