My days are like a shadow that declineth,.... Or, "that is stretched out" , which, though it may appear long, is soon at an end; as it does appear longer when the sun sets , and departs from the earth: he reckons his life not by months and years, but by days; and these he compares to a "shadow", which has no substance in it; his age being as nothing before the Lord, and has much darkness and obscurity in it; his days being days of darkness, affliction, and trouble, and quickly gone, as man's life is; there is no abiding; see 1Ch 29:15.
Pindar calls man the dream of a shadow:and I am withered like grass; which in the morning is flourishing, is cut down at noon, and withered at evening: this is the case of all flesh, however beautiful and goodly it may look; it is weak, frail, and mortal; cannot stand before the force of afflictions, which quickly consume strength and beauty, and much less before the scythe of death; see Ps 90:5.
ywjn "inclinata", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator, Musculus, Cocceius; "extensa", Michaelis. "Et sol crescentes decedens duplicat umbras", Virgil. Bacol. Eclog. 2. Pyth.