Psalms 90:5

Thou carriest them away as with a flood A single word in the Heb. suffices to draw the picture. Man is compared to a building swept away by a sudden burst of rain such as is common in the East. Cp. Isaiah 28:2; Isaiah 30:30; Matthew 7:25; Matthew 7:27.

they areas a sleep As those who are asleep. Or, they fall asleep, in the sleep of death. Cp. Psalms 76:6; Jeremiah 51:39; Jeremiah 51:57; Nahum 3:18.

in the morning&c. Another figure for the transitoriness of human life, developed in Psalms 90:6. Cp. Psalms 103:15-16; Job 14:2; Isaiah 40:6 ff. Its significance depends on the peculiar character of some of the grasses in Palestine. "The grasses of the Jordan valley and the Dead Sea basin are very peculiar, seldom becoming turf-like, or compact in growth, shooting up in early spring with the greatest luxuriance, and then as rapidly seeding and dying down, scorched and burnt up at once, and leaving for the rest of the year no other trace of their existence than the straggling stems from which the seeds and their sheath have long been shaken." Tristram, Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 453.

The P.B.V. follows the LXX, Vulg., and Jer. in its rendering, and fade away suddenly like the grass. The verb may mean to pass away as well as to growor shoot up, but it must clearly have the same meaning in both verses, and Psalms 90:6 appears to be decisive for the latter meaning. Some commentators indeed render passes awayin both verses, but the sense in the morning it flourishes and passes awayis unsatisfactory. The double rendering dried up and witheredin P.B.V. comes down through the Vulg. from the LXX.