Seen by Scripture as the climax of the work of creation, life is a gift of God and is to be treated with reverence and respect. Passages gathered in the Dictionary of Bible Themes © 1999 Martin H. Manser, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
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Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
You killed the Author of life, but God raised Him from the dead, and we are witnesses of the fact.
Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.
Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you drank wine from them with your nobles, wives, and concubines, you praised your gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you have failed to glorify the God who holds in His hand your very breath and all your ways.
'For in Him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are His offspring.'
You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that."
"Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is.
Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit." You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man: Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.
No man can possibly redeem his brother or pay his ransom to God. For the redemption of his soul is costly, and never can payment suffice, that he should live on forever and not see decay.
I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well.
What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
For You are my hope, O Lord GOD, my confidence from my youth. I have leaned on You since birth; You pulled me from my mother's womb. My praise is always for You.
When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man.
I know, O LORD, that a man's way is not his own; no one who walks directs his own steps.
He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
So if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything to come is futile.
The length of our days is seventy years— or eighty if we are strong— yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is dismantled, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
As for man, his days are like grass— he blooms like a flower of the field; when the wind passes over, it vanishes, and its place remembers it no more.
My dwelling has been picked up and removed from me like a shepherd's tent. I have rolled up my life like a weaver; He cuts me off from the loom; from day until night You make an end of me.
I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of my body, because I know that this tent will soon be laid aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
For we are foreigners and strangers in Your presence, as were all our forefathers. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope.
You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle; they come to an end without hope. Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.
Like a flower, he comes forth, then withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
"Show me, O LORD, my end and the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting my life is. You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.
For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?
A voice says, "Cry out!" And I asked, "What should I cry out?" "All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall when the breath of the LORD blows on them; indeed, the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.
but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die."
When Adam was 130 years old, he had a son in his own likeness, after his own image; and he named him Seth. And after he had become the father of Seth, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. So Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died. When Seth was 105 years old, he became the father of Enosh. And after he had become the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. So Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died. When Enosh was 90 years old, he became the father of Kenan. And after he had become the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters.
This is the account of Shem. Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. And after he had become the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters. When Arphaxad was 35 years old, he became the father of Shelah. And after he had become the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters. When Shelah was 30 years old, he became the father of Eber. And after he had become the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters. When Eber was 34 years old, he became the father of Peleg. And after he had become the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and your water. And I will take away sickness from among you. No woman in your land will miscarry or be barren; I will fulfill the number of your days.
So if you walk in My ways and keep My statutes and commandments, just as your father David did, I will prolong your days."
For through wisdom your days will be multiplied, and years will be added to your life.
The fear of the LORD prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be cut short.
For, "Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech.
Who is the man who delights in life, who desires to see good days? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech.
For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun? Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.
I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.
"I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.