4:14

you are a mist: The Greek word rendered “mist” might also mean “a mere puff of smoke.” With this vivid metaphor, James counters the faulty thinking he referred to in the preceding verse and stresses that life is brief and fragile. (Compare Job 14:1, 2; Ps 39:5; 102:11.) As one reference work puts it, the point is that human life is so short, so frail, that it could end at any time, “just as quickly as the morning sun dissipates the mist or as a shift in wind direction blows away smoke.”