Psalms 39:11

11 [When] with rebukes you chastise a man for sin, you {consume} like a moth his delightful [things]. Surely everyone [is] a [mere] vapor. Selah

Psalms 39:11 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 39:11

When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity
The psalmist illustrates his own case, before suggested, by the common case and condition of men, when God corrects them; which he has a right to do, as the Father of spirits, and which he does with rebukes; sometimes with rebukes of wrath, with furious rebukes, rebukes in flames of fire, as the men of the world; and sometimes with rebukes of love, the chastenings of a father, as his own dear children; and always for iniquity, whether one or another; and not the iniquity of Adam is here meant, but personal iniquity: and correction for it is to be understood of some bodily affliction, as the effect of it shows;

thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth;
that is, secretly, suddenly, and at once; as a moth eats a garment, and takes off the beauty of it; or as easily as a moth is crushed between a man's fingers; so the Targum;

``he melts away as a moth, whose body is broken:''

the Vulgate Latin, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, and so the metaphrase of Apollinarius, read, as a spider which destroys itself. The word rendered "beauty" takes in all that is desirable in man; as his flesh, his strength, his comeliness, his pleasantness of countenance all which are quickly destroyed by a distemper of the body seizing on it; wherefore the psalmist makes and confirms the conclusion he had made before:

surely every man [is] vanity; (See Gill on Psalms 39:5);

Selah; on this word, (See Gill on Psalms 3:2).

Psalms 39:11 In-Context

9 I am mute. I do not open my mouth, for you, yourself, have done [it].

10 Remove from me your affliction. By the opposition of your hand I perish.

11 [When] with rebukes you chastise a man for sin, you {consume} like a moth his delightful [things]. Surely everyone [is] a [mere] vapor. Selah

12 Hear my prayer, O Yahweh, and listen [to] my cry for help; do not be deaf to my tears. For I [am] an alien with you, a sojourner like all my ancestors.

13 Look [away] from me that I may be cheerful, before I depart and I am no more.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew "and/then you"
• [b]. Literally "cause to melt"
• [c]. The word translated "vanity" in vv. 6, 7