Substance and Nothingness

Καὶ ὑπόστασίς μου ὡσει οὐθὲν ἐνωπιόν σου. Ἥ καὶ οὕτως· Ἡ ὑπόστασίς μου ὡσει οὐθὲν ἐνωπιόν σου, ὅτι χίλια ἕτη ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς σου ὡσεὶ ἡμέρα ἡ ἐχθὲς ἢτις παρὴλθεν, ἢ φυλακὴ ἐν νυκτὶ, τουτέστιν ὥραι τρεῖς ἢ τέσσαρες. Οὐκοῦν ἐπειδήπερ αὐτὸς μὲν ὑπάρχεις ἀεὶ, ἡ δ' ἐμὴ ὑπόστασίς ὀλίγη παντελῶς ἐστιν καὶ συνεσταλμένη, καὶ ὡς οὐδὲν ὅλως ἐν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς, μὴ ἀφῇς κολάζεσθαι μακρὰ τὸν ἐξ ἀσθενείας ὠλισθηκότα, μήτε μὴν τῷ παντὶ τοῦ βίου μήκει σύνδρομον ἔχοιμι τὴν πληγήν. Ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ ὑπόστασίς, ὁ μὲν Ἀκύλας κατάδυσις εἴπεν· ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος βίωσις. Ὁ γαρ ἀνθρώπινος βίος οὐδεν ἐστιν, ὡς πρὸς τὴν θείαν ἀϊδιότητα· καψὰ τὸ, Σὺ δὲ αὐτὸς εἶ· ἀλλὰ καὶ πᾶσα ἡ παρ' ἀνθρώποις σπουδὴ, ματαιότης ματαιοτήτων. Ἅγιος Κύριλλος Ἀλεξανδρείας, Εἰς Τον Ψαλμον ΛΗ' Source: Migne PG 69.973c-976a

And my substance is nothing before you. 1 So he says that his substance is nothing before you, because a thousand years before your eyes are like a day which has passed, or a watch in the night 2 that is, three or four hours. When, then, you are eternal my existence is contracted to a tiny thing, and it is as nothing in your sight, and that lest you give long length for punishment to him who in his weakness errs, and all through such life he have a flood of blows. Now for substance, the translator Aquila writes 'depths', and Symmachus has 'life'. For human life is nothing before the eternity of God, according to which, 'You yourself are, and every concern of man is a vanity of vanities.' 3 Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Psalm 38 1 Ps 38.6 2  Ps 89.4 3 Ps 101.28