Translation
Therefore, remove anger and frustration from your inner being,
Go to footnote numberand send away
Go to footnote numberevil from your bodies, for childhood and the time of youth when you still have black hair
Go to footnote numberare like a vapor.
Go to footnote numberParaphrase
Therefore, during your early years, don’t let anger fill your mind and heart, and refuse to live by the natural desires of your physical body, because, in the big picture of life, the things that so often characterize youthful years are not worth investing in because they are like a vapor.
Footnotes
1
This word means “inner being or inner man,” but it is often rendered as “heart or mind.”
2: “send away”
This word is usually associated with crossing a river or a barrier. It can be rendered in a variety of ways, many of which include words like “cross, send over, pass over, take away, take across.” There are other meanings as well, but the basic idea of “crossing over a barrier” can usually be detected in them. Here the word is being used of what to do with the tendency to allow the desires of the natural body to get out of control or be used for selfish fulfillment. Many of those things have a good purpose if they are not allowed to be used outside of God’s design. Examples are hunger for food, the sex drive, the desire to be seen favorably by others, the need for rest and relaxation, the desire to be entertained, and more. The use of this word means that we should send the sinful uses of those natural desires so far away that they end up on the other side of the river, or some other big barrier. Don’t entertain for a moment the inappropriate use of any of these natural desires; shun them, reject them, keep them as far away from you as possible. You are full of the things that characterize youthfulness, but remember that God will judge you for the course you set for the rest of your life, and that some of the natural tendencies of youth are counterproductive and even destructive.
3
This word simply means “black or blackness,” therefore the Hebrew simply says, “for childhood and blackness are like a vapor.” The reader must determine what is meant by blackness, and context helps us understand it is talking about some aspect of youth that is black, therefore it means someone with black hair that has not yet started turning grey.
4
Youthfulness is like a vapor in the following ways: A: it Accomplishes nothing or very little, for all that energy and zeal, if not properly applied do not accomplish things that are of lasting value; S: it is Short-lived, for it will pass and you will wish you had that energy again; S: not solid or firm, for it will change.