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Selected Verse: James 4:14 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Jas 4:14	Strong Concordance	Whereas [3748] ye know [1987] not [3756] what [3588] shall be on the morrow [839]. For [1063] what [4169] is your [5216] life [2222]? It is [2076] even [1063] a vapour [822], that [4314] appeareth for [5316] a little time [3641], and [1161] then [1899] vanisheth away [853].
	King James	Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
what--literally, "of what nature" is your life? that is, how evanescent it is. It is even--Some oldest authorities read, "For ye are." BENGEL, with other old authorities, reads, "For it shall be," the future referring to the "morrow" (Jam 4:13-15). The former expresses, "Ye yourselves are transitory"; so everything of yours, even your life, must partake of the same transitoriness. Received text has no old authority. and then vanisheth away--"afterwards vanishing as it came"; literally, "afterwards (as it appeared), so vanishing" [ALFORD].

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

what--literally, "of what nature" is your life? that is, how evanescent it is.

It is even--Some oldest authorities read, "For ye are." BENGEL, with other old authorities, reads, "For it shall be," the future referring to the "morrow" (Jam 4:13-15). The former expresses, "Ye yourselves are transitory"; so everything of yours, even your life, must partake of the same transitoriness. Received text has no old authority.

and then vanisheth away--"afterwards vanishing as it came"; literally, "afterwards (as it appeared), so vanishing" [ALFORD].

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Whereas, ye know not what shall be on the morrow - They formed their plans as if they knew; the apostle says it could not be known. They had no means of ascertaining what would occur; whether they would live or die; whether they would be prospered, or would be overwhelmed with adversity. Of the truth of the remark made by the apostle here, no one can doubt; but it is amazing how men act as if it were false. We have no power of penetrating the future so as to be able to determine what will occur in a single day or a single hour, and yet we are almost habitually forming our plans as if we saw with certainty all that is to happen. The classic writings abound with beautiful expressions respecting the uncertainty of the future, and the folly of forming our plans as if it were known to us. Many of those passages, some of them almost precisely in the words of James, may be seen in Grotius and Pricaeus, in loc. Such passages occur in Anacreon, Euripides, Menander, Seneca, Horace, and others, suggesting an obvious but much-neglected thought, that the future is to is all unknown. Man cannot penetrate it; and his plans of life should be formed in view of the possibility that his life may be cut off and all his plans fail, and consequently in constant preparation for a higher world. For what is your life? - All your plans must depend of course on the continuance of your life; but what a frail and uncertain thing is that! How transitory and evanescent as a basis on which to build any plans for the future! Who can calculate on the permanence of a vapor? Who can build any solid hopes on a mist? It is even a vapour - Margin, "For it is." The margin is the more correct rendering. The previous question had turned the attention to life as something peculiarly frail, and as of such a nature that no calculation could be based on its permanence. This expression gives a reason for that, to wit, that it is a mere vapor. The word "vapor" (ἀτμὶς atmis,) means a mist, an exhalation, a smoke; such a vapor as we see ascending from a stream, or as lies on the mountain side on the morning, or as floats for a little time in the air, but which is dissipated by the rising sun, leaving not a trace behind. The comparison of life with a vapor is common, and is as beautiful as it is just. Job says, O remember that my life is Wind; Mine eyes shall no more see good. Job 7:7. So the Psalmist, For he remembered that they were but flesh, A wind that passeth away and that cometh not again. Psa 78:39. Compare Ch1 29:15; Job 14:10-11. And then vanisheth away - Wholly disappears. Like the dissipated vapor, it is entirely gone. There is no remnant, no outline, nothing that reminds us that it ever was. So of life. Soon it disappears altogether. The works of art that man has made, the house that he has built, or the book that he has written, remain for a little time, but the life has gone. There is nothing of it remaining - any more than there is of the vapor which in the morning climbed silently up the mountain side. The animating principle has vanished forever. On such a frail and evanescent thing, who can build any substantial hopes?

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

Whereas, ye know not what shall be on the morrow - They formed their plans as if they knew; the apostle says it could not be known. They had no means of ascertaining what would occur; whether they would live or die; whether they would be prospered, or would be overwhelmed with adversity. Of the truth of the remark made by the apostle here, no one can doubt; but it is amazing how men act as if it were false. We have no power of penetrating the future so as to be able to determine what will occur in a single day or a single hour, and yet we are almost habitually forming our plans as if we saw with certainty all that is to happen. The classic writings abound with beautiful expressions respecting the uncertainty of the future, and the folly of forming our plans as if it were known to us. Many of those passages, some of them almost precisely in the words of James, may be seen in Grotius and Pricaeus, in loc. Such passages occur in Anacreon, Euripides, Menander, Seneca, Horace, and others, suggesting an obvious but much-neglected thought, that the future is to is all unknown. Man cannot penetrate it; and his plans of life should be formed in view of the possibility that his life may be cut off and all his plans fail, and consequently in constant preparation for a higher world.

For what is your life? - All your plans must depend of course on the continuance of your life; but what a frail and uncertain thing is that! How transitory and evanescent as a basis on which to build any plans for the future! Who can calculate on the permanence of a vapor? Who can build any solid hopes on a mist?

It is even a vapour - Margin, "For it is." The margin is the more correct rendering. The previous question had turned the attention to life as something peculiarly frail, and as of such a nature that no calculation could be based on its permanence. This expression gives a reason for that, to wit, that it is a mere vapor. The word "vapor" (ἀτμὶς atmis,) means a mist, an exhalation, a smoke; such a vapor as we see ascending from a stream, or as lies on the mountain side on the morning, or as floats for a little time in the air, but which is dissipated by the rising sun, leaving not a trace behind. The comparison of life with a vapor is common, and is as beautiful as it is just. Job says,

O remember that my life is Wind;

Mine eyes shall no more see good.

Job 7:7.

So the Psalmist,

For he remembered that they were but flesh,

A wind that passeth away and that cometh not again.

Psa 78:39.

Compare Ch1 29:15; Job 14:10-11.

And then vanisheth away - Wholly disappears. Like the dissipated vapor, it is entirely gone. There is no remnant, no outline, nothing that reminds us that it ever was. So of life. Soon it disappears altogether. The works of art that man has made, the house that he has built, or the book that he has written, remain for a little time, but the life has gone. There is nothing of it remaining - any more than there is of the vapor which in the morning climbed silently up the mountain side. The animating principle has vanished forever. On such a frail and evanescent thing, who can build any substantial hopes?

Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent [1886]
Whereas ye know not (οἵτινες οὐκ ἐπίστασθε) The pronoun marking a class, as being of those who know not. What shall be on the morrow (τὸ τῆς αὔριον) Lit., the thing of the morrow. The texts vary. Westcott and Hort read, Ye know not what your life shall be on the morrow, for ye are a vapor: thus throwing out the question. What is your life? (ποία) Lit., of what kind or nature. It is even a vapor (ἀτμὶς γάρ ἐστιν) But all the best texts read ἐστε, ye are. So Rev., which, however, retains the question, what is your life ? Appeareth - vanisheth Both participles, appearing, vanishing. And then (ἔπειτα καὶ) The καὶ placed after the adverb then is not copulative, but expresses that the vapor vanishes even as it appeared.

Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent [1886]

Whereas ye know not (οἵτινες οὐκ ἐπίστασθε)

The pronoun marking a class, as being of those who know not.

What shall be on the morrow (τὸ τῆς αὔριον)

Lit., the thing of the morrow. The texts vary. Westcott and Hort read, Ye know not what your life shall be on the morrow, for ye are a vapor: thus throwing out the question.

What is your life? (ποία)

Lit., of what kind or nature.

It is even a vapor (ἀτμὶς γάρ ἐστιν)

But all the best texts read ἐστε, ye are. So Rev., which, however, retains the question, what is your life ?

Appeareth - vanisheth

Both participles, appearing, vanishing.

And then (ἔπειτα καὶ)

The καὶ placed after the adverb then is not copulative, but expresses that the vapor vanishes even as it appeared.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Whereas ye know not - This verse should be read in a parenthesis. It is not only impious, but grossly absurd, to speak thus concerning futurity, when ye know not what a day may bring forth. Life is utterly precarious; and God has not put it within the power of all the creatures he has made to command one moment of what is future. It is even a vapour - Ατμις γαρ εστιν· It is a smoke, always fleeting, uncertain, evanescent, and obscured with various trials and afflictions. This is a frequent metaphor with the Hebrews; see Psa 102:11; My days are like a shadow: Job 8:9; Our days upon earth are a shadow: Ch1 29:15; Our days on the earth are a shadow, and there is no abiding. Quid tam circumcisum, tam breve, quam hominis vita longissima? Plin. l. iii., Ep. 7. "What is so circumscribed, or so short, as the longest life of man?" "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth, because the breath of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is like grass." St. James had produced the same figure, Jam 1:10, Jam 1:11. But there is a very remarkable saying in the book of Ecclesiasticus, which should be quoted: "As of the green leaves of a thick tree, some fall and some grow; so is the generation of flesh and blood: one cometh to an end, and another is born." Ecclus. 14:18. We find precisely the same image in Homer as that quoted above. Did the apocryphal writer borrow it from the Greek poet? Οἱη περ φυλλων γενεη, τοιηδε και ανδρων· Φυλλα τα μεν τ' ανεμος χαμαδις χεει, αλλα δε θ' ὑλη Τηλεθοωσα φυει, εσρος δ' επιγιγνεται ὡρη· Ὡς ανδρων γενεη, ἡ μεν φυει, ἡ δ' αποληγει. Il. l. vi., ver. 146. Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now withering on the ground Another race the following spring supplies; They fall successive, and successive rise. So generations in their course decay; So flourish these, when those are pass'd away. Pope.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826

Whereas ye know not - This verse should be read in a parenthesis. It is not only impious, but grossly absurd, to speak thus concerning futurity, when ye know not what a day may bring forth. Life is utterly precarious; and God has not put it within the power of all the creatures he has made to command one moment of what is future.

It is even a vapour - Ατμις γαρ εστιν· It is a smoke, always fleeting, uncertain, evanescent, and obscured with various trials and afflictions. This is a frequent metaphor with the Hebrews; see Psa 102:11; My days are like a shadow: Job 8:9; Our days upon earth are a shadow: Ch1 29:15; Our days on the earth are a shadow, and there is no abiding. Quid tam circumcisum, tam breve, quam hominis vita longissima? Plin. l. iii., Ep. 7. "What is so circumscribed, or so short, as the longest life of man?" "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth, because the breath of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is like grass." St. James had produced the same figure, Jam 1:10, Jam 1:11. But there is a very remarkable saying in the book of Ecclesiasticus, which should be quoted: "As of the green leaves of a thick tree, some fall and some grow; so is the generation of flesh and blood: one cometh to an end, and another is born." Ecclus. 14:18.

We find precisely the same image in Homer as that quoted above. Did the apocryphal writer borrow it from the Greek poet?

Οἱη περ φυλλων γενεη, τοιηδε και ανδρων·

Φυλλα τα μεν τ' ανεμος χαμαδις χεει, αλλα δε θ' ὑλη

Τηλεθοωσα φυει, εσρος δ' επιγιγνεται ὡρη·

Ὡς ανδρων γενεη, ἡ μεν φυει, ἡ δ' αποληγει.

Il. l. vi., ver. 146.

Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,

Now green in youth, now withering on the ground

Another race the following spring supplies;

They fall successive, and successive rise.

So generations in their course decay;

So flourish these, when those are pass'd away.

Pope.

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