Man is like to vanity,.... Is vanity itself, in every age, state, and condition; yea, in his best estate, Psalms 39:5; or, "to the breath" h of the mouth, as Kimchi; which is gone as soon as seen almost: or, to a vapour i; to which the life of man is compared, James 4:14;
his days [are] as a shadow that passeth away; as the former denotes the frailty and mortality of man, this the shortness of his duration; his days fleeing away, and of no more continuance than the shadow cast by the sun, which presently declines and is gone.
h להבל "halitui", Muis; so Kimchi. i "Vapori", Cocceius; so the Syriac and Arabic versions