Psalm 103:16

Modern

…when the wind passes over, it vanishes, and its place remembers it no more.

Traditional

For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

Literal

For the wind passes over it, and it is no more; and its place does not recognize it anymore.

Latin

…quoniam spiritus pertransibit in illo, et non subsistet, et non cognoscet amplius locum suum.

Hebrew

English

…when the wind passes over, it vanishes, and its place remembers it no more.

The Lord compassionately cares for weak humans (see Psalm 37:2; 90:5; 92:7; 102:4; Isaiah 40:6–8).

This psalm celebrates the Lord’s perfection, compassion, forgiveness, and goodness.

Theme notes and profiles

Isaiah 40:7
The grass withers and the flowers fall when the breath of the LORD blows on them; indeed, the people are grass.
Job 20:9
The eye that saw him will see him no more, and his place will no longer behold him.
Job 14:10
But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he?
Genesis 5:24
Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more, because God had taken him away.
Job 7:6–10
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.
Job 27:20–21
Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest sweeps him away in the night.
Job 8:18–19
If he is uprooted from his place, it will disown him, saying, ‘I never saw you.’