Psalms 39:11

When thou with rebukes dost chasten a man for iniquity,

Thou wastest like a moth his desirableness:

Nought but vanity are all men.

The A.V. obscures the correspondence of the first line with Psalms 38:1; Psalms 6:1. As easily as the moth-grub, working unseen, destroys -goodly raiment" (Genesis 27:15), so easily does God's chastisement destroy a man's -goodliness," the bodily strength and beauty which make him attractive (Isaiah 53:2). It is God's consuming -hand" which is compared to the -moth" (Hosea 5:12); not, as the A.V. might seem to imply, the ephemeral duration of man's goodliness. Cp. Job 13:28; Isaiah 50:9; Isaiah 51:8.