Psalms 39:6 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Surely every man walketh Passeth the course of his life; or, goeth about busily or restlessly hither and thither, as יתהלךְ, jithhallech, implies, and as the next verb more plainly expresses: In a vain show Hebrew, בצלם, betzelem, in a shadow, or image. The word is used only twice in the Psalms, here and Psalms 73:20, in both which places it signifies what is imaginary, in opposition to what is real. Man proceeds on in an imaginary, rather than real life: in the pursuit of vain imaginations, in which there is nothing solid or satisfactory. For such are the interests, distinctions, and pleasures of this world, unsubstantial uncertain, and transitory. Or, as some read it, Like a shadow, to which man's life is compared, Job 14:2. Man and his life, and all his happiness in this world, are rather appearances, and representations, and dreams, than truths or realities. They are disquieted, or troubled, in vain To no purpose; or without any real or considerable benefit to them or theirs. Hebrew, יהמיון, jehemajun, they make a noise, a bustling, or tumult; with unwearied industry seeking for riches, as it follows, and troubling both themselves and others in the pursuit of them. He heapeth up riches For his own use, he thinks, and for his posterity after him. And knoweth not who shall gather them Whether his children, or strangers, or enemies, shall possess and enjoy them. The Hebrew word יצבר, jitzbor, here rendered, He heapeth up, signifies to rake together; in which there is an allusion to the husbandman's collecting his corn together before he carries it to the barn. “The metaphor,” says Dr. Dodd, “is elegant, intimating the precariousness of human life, and the vanity of human acquisitions; which, though heaped up together, like corn, by one person, may soon become the possession of another.”