Psalms 104:23

Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
Man	אָדָ֣ם 'a.Dam	H120	ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · noun, common masculine singular absolute
forth	יֵצֵ֣א ye.Tze'	H3318	to go (causatively · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
work	לְפָעֳל֑וֹ le.fo.'o.Lo	H6467	an act or work (concretely) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
labour	וְֽלַעֲבֹ֖דָת֣וֹ ve.la.'a.Vo.da.To	H5656	work of any kind · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
evening	עָֽרֶב 'A.rev	H6153	dusk · noun, common masculine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto…
Ecclesiastes 5:12 The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
Ephesians 4:28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him…
Judges 19:16 And, behold, there came an old man from his work out of the field at even, which was also of mount Ephraim; and he sojourned in Gibeah: but…
2 Thessalonians 3:8-12 Neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Psalms 104:19-30

We are here taught to praise and magnify God, I. For the constant revolutions and succession of day and night, and the dominion of sun and moon over them. The heathen were so affected with the light and influence of the sun and moon, and their serviceableness to the earth, that they worshipped them as deities; and therefore the scripture takes all occasions to show that the gods they worshipped are the creatures and servants of the true God (Psa 104:19): He appointed the moon for seasons, for the measuring of the months, the directing of the seasons for the business of the husbandman, and the governing of the tides. The full and change, the increase and decrease, of the moon, exactly observe…

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John Gill on Psalms 104:23

Man goeth forth to his work,.... Having taken sleep in the night, being comfortably refreshed, and his strength recruited; he rises with the rising sun, and goes forth cheerfully and with intrepidity to his work in the field, or elsewhere, the beasts being fled and gone. And to his labour until the evening; to till the ground, and do other services and labour, either of the head or hand; for man is born and designed for labour, and not for sloth and idleness: in his innocent state he was set to dress the garden and keep it; and, after the fall, his doom was to get his bread by the sweat of his brow; and he is to work while the day lasts, till the evening and night come on, when he betakes h…

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John Calvin on Psalms 104:16-23

Psalm 104:16-18 16. The trees of Jehovah [188] shall be satiated; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; 17. For there the birds build their nests: the stork, [189] whose dwelling is the fir trees. 18. The high mountains are for the deer [190] and the rocks are a place of shelter for the hedgehogs. [191] 16. The trees of Jehovah shall be satiated The Psalmist again treats of God's general providence in cherishing all the parts of the world. In the first place, he asserts, that by the watering of which he had spoken the trees are satiated, or filled with sap, that thus flourishing they may be a place of abode to the birds. He next declares, that the wild deer and conies have also the…

The Church Fathers

Man shall go forth to his work, and to his labor until the evening. But after the sun of righteousness has arisen, we go forth again to our labor until the evening, that is, until the consummation. Therefore we ought to work righteousness at every time.
— Jerome, Homily 30, on Psalm 103

What art thou doing, O man of God? thou, O Church of God? what art thou, O body of Christ, whose Head is in Heaven? what art thou doing, O man, His unity? "Man," he saith, "shall go forth to his work" (ver. 23). Let therefore this man work good works in the security of the peace of the Church, let him work unto the end. For sometime there will be a sort of general darkening, and a sort of assault will be made, but in the evening, that is, in the end of the world: but now the Church doth work in peace and tranquillity; for "man shall go forth to his work, and to his labour, unto the evening."
— Augustine of Hippo, On the Psalms, Psalm 104

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Providence — Literally means foresight, but is generally used to denote God’s preserving and governing all things by means of second causes (Ps. 18:35; 63:8; Acts 17:28; Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3). God’s providence…
Day · Artificial, divided into: Evening — Artificial, divided into: Evening
Evening, The · Man ceases from labour in — Man ceases from labour in
Night · Designed for rest — Designed for rest

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Psalms 104:23

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Psalms 104:19-30

John Gill on Psalms 104:23

John Calvin on Psalms 104:16-23

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Psalms 104:23

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Psalms 104:19-30

John Gill on Psalms 104:23

John Calvin on Psalms 104:16-23

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on Psalms 104:19-23

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Psalms 104:20-23

Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 104:23