What Does Psalm 89:47 Mean in the King James?
Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast thou made all men in vain?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The KJV’s “all men” is literally “all the sons of Adam,” so the verse asks whether the ground-born human family has been created for emptiness.
THE MEANING
Your time is brief, and that brevity gives voice to the question: why are all human beings made for emptiness? The verse lets the fear that life may be futile stand in the open as a direct address to God.
THE ROOT
אָדָם
ʾādām
GROWS FROM
אדם
ʾ-d-m
The word family links the human, the ground, and redness: אָדָם names the human, אֲדָמָה the ground, and אָדֹם means red.
The Hebrew says “all the sons of Adam,” not simply a generic “all men.” Adam is the ground-being, linked to adamah, soil; the lament is about the finite, earth-born human family.
ALSO GROWS
adamah: Ground, soil.
אֲדָמָה
The shared word family ties human life to the ground from which it comes.
adom: Red.
אָדֹם
The same consonants connect the human and ground word family with redness, a shade associated with the soil.
adam: Human, person.
אָדָם
The word translated “men” preserves the name Adam within the phrase “sons of Adam.”
THE PATTERN
Awareness of brief human life repeatedly opens the question of whether existence is empty.
Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,THE THREAD
He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.The same Hebrew word שָׁוְא (shavʾ, emptiness or falsehood) appears here as “vanity.” Its range lets Psalm 89’s question reach beyond “for no use”: it asks whether human life is empty, or somehow false to what it was made to be.
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