What Does Psalm 90:6 Mean in the King James?
In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
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 same Hebrew word that describes life growing also carries the sense of passing and changing, so flourishing already belongs to the day’s turning.
THE MEANING
What flourishes before you can be vivid and growing, yet its visible season is brief. In this verse, morning growth and evening withering belong to one continuous day. The verse lets both be seen without mistaking a bright season for permanence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that flourishing guarantees permanence: what is growing can still be cut down by evening.
THE ROOT
יָצִיץ
yatsits
GROWS FROM
צוץ
tsuts
To blossom or sprout; also to gleam.
“flourisheth” in this verse is yatsits. The word pictures a blossom opening, not an abstract state of success. The Hebrew line begins with visible emergence, placing the bloom inside the brief arc of the day.
ALSO GROWS
tsits: Flower or blossom.
צִיץ
Job 14:2 uses this related word for a flower that comes forth and is cut down, echoing the same brief arc.
tsitsit: Tassel or fringe.
צִיצִת
The word names something that projects outward like a sprouting tuft, extending the root’s image of visible emergence.
וְחָלָף
wə-chalaph
GROWS FROM
חלף
chalaph
To pass, change, or renew; here, to spring up or grow.
“groweth up” in this verse is wə-chalaph. This word carries both growth and change: the life that rises is already moving through a transition. Elsewhere the same root describes renewal and things passing, letting the verse’s flourishing and its brevity sit within one word-family.
ALSO GROWS
yachalifu: They renew or change.
יַחֲלִיפוּ
Isaiah 40:31 uses this form for renewed strength, showing that change can also bring fresh vigor.
chalifot: Changes of garments.
חֲלִיפוֹת
Judges 14:12 uses this noun for changes of clothing, another expression of passing from one state to another.
THE PATTERN
Visible flourishing carries its own change and ending, moving from emergence toward withering within a single day.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.THE THREAD
He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.Job uses צִיץ (tsits, flower) from the same root as Psalm 90:6’s יָצִיץ (yatsits, flourisheth). Both verses place the flower’s emergence beside its cutting down, making the shared word-picture unmistakable.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us