And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow - i:e., if one be possessed of an unusually strong constitution, and thereby his years reach fourscore. The Hebrew for the second "strength" х raahªbaam (H7296)] is different from that for the first "strength:" it means rather pride; that on which they pride themselves, their distinguishing boast. Translate, 'yet is their matter of pride labour and vanity.' Hengstenberg translates for "sorrow" х 'aawen (H205)] 'wickedness'-namely, what one suffers from the wickedness of others; as Abel from Cain. 'Their pride is only suffering and wickedness.' Compare Genesis 47:9, Jacob's words to Pharaoh, "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been;" and Genesis 5:29, Lamech's speech. The assertion here refers not to the period beyond seventy years, as some take it, but to life as a whole under such favourable conditions of strength and longevity: even so it is but hardship and vanity.
For it is soon cut off - like grass mown. So the Hebrew х gaaz (H1468), from gaazaz (H1494), to shear], Psalms 72:6. But Gesenius translates, 'it (the whole matter) passes away' [from guwz (H1468)]. Hengstenberg takes the verb impersonally, 'there is the being driven away:' 'we are driven away.'