good old age” (e.g., ABRAHAM, Gen. 25:8), with the sense of satisfaction that they have enjoyed their natural span and that they continue to live on in their posterity, accepting their death as something natural. On the other hand, Ps. 90 bears witness to the belief that even a full life span is short and is cut off because of God’s wrath. It is true, of course, that much of the abhorrence of death expressed by the OT writers may be due to fear and avoidance of the unknown, so little having been
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