Psalms 6:2

6:2 Have mercy on me, ¹  Lord, for I am frail!

Heal me, Lord, for my bones are shaking! ² 

Psalms 31:9-10

31:9 Have mercy on me, for I am in distress!

My eyes grow dim ³  from suffering. ⁴ 

I have lost my strength. ⁵ 

31:10 For my life nears its end in pain;

my years draw to a close as I groan. ⁶ 

My strength fails me because of ⁷  my sin,

and my bones become brittle. ⁸ 

Psalms 38:3

38:3 My whole body is sick because of your judgment; ⁹ 

I am deprived of health because of my sin. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 51:8

51:8 Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven! ¹¹ 

May the bones ¹²  you crushed rejoice! ¹³ 

Psalms 102:3-5

102:3 For my days go up in smoke, ¹⁴ 

and my bones are charred like a fireplace. ¹⁵ 

102:4 My heart is parched ¹⁶  and withered like grass,

for I am unable ¹⁷  to eat food. ¹⁸ 

102:5 Because of the anxiety that makes me groan,

my bones protrude from my skin. ¹⁹ 

Job 30:17

30:17 Night pierces ²⁰  my bones; ²¹ 

my gnawing pains ²²  never cease.

Job 30:30

30:30 My skin has turned dark on me; ²³ 

my body ²⁴  is hot with fever. ²⁵ 

Lamentations 1:3

ג (Gimel)

1:3 Judah ²⁶  has departed into exile

under ²⁷  affliction and harsh oppression. ²⁸ 

She ²⁹  lives among the nations;

she has found no resting place.

All who pursued her overtook her

in ³⁰  narrow straits. ³¹ 

Lamentations 3:4

ב (Bet)

3:4 He has made my mortal skin ³²  waste away;

he has broken my bones.

[6:2]  ¹ tn Or “show me favor.”

[6:2]  ² tn Normally the verb בָּהַל (bahal) refers to an emotional response and means “tremble with fear, be terrified” (see vv. 3, 10). Perhaps here the “bones” are viewed as the seat of the psalmist’s emotions. However, the verb may describe one of the effects of his physical ailment, perhaps a fever. In Ezek 7:27 the verb describes how the hands of the people will shake with fear when they experience the horrors of divine judgment.

[31:9]  ³ tn Or perhaps, “are swollen.”

[31:9]  ⁴ tn Cf. Ps 6:7, which has a similar line.

[31:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “my breath and my stomach [grow weak].” Apparently the verb in the previous line (“grow dim, be weakened”) is to be understood here. The Hebrew term נפשׁ can mean “life,” or, more specifically, “throat, breath.” The psalmist seems to be lamenting that his breathing is impaired because of the physical and emotional suffering he is forced to endure.

[31:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “and my years in groaning.”

[31:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “stumbles in.”

[31:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “grow weak.”

[38:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh from before your anger.” “Anger” here refers metonymically to divine judgment, which is the practical effect of God’s anger at the psalmist’s sin.

[38:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “there is no health in my bones from before my sin.”

[51:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “cause me to hear happiness and joy.” The language is metonymic: the effect of forgiveness (joy) has been substituted for its cause. The psalmist probably alludes here to an assuring word from God announcing that his sins are forgiven (a so-called oracle of forgiveness). The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request. The synonyms “happiness” and “joy” are joined together as a hendiadys to emphasize the degree of joy he anticipates.

[51:8]  ¹² sn May the bones you crushed rejoice. The psalmist compares his sinful condition to that of a person who has been physically battered and crushed. Within this metaphorical framework, his “bones” are the seat of his emotional strength.

[51:8]  ¹³ tn In this context of petitionary prayer, the prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive, expressing the psalmist’s wish or request.

[102:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for my days come to an end in smoke.”

[102:3]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew noun מוֹ־קֵד (mo-qed, “fireplace”) occurs only here, in Isa 33:14 (where it refers to the fire itself), and perhaps in Lev 6:2.

[102:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “struck, attacked.”

[102:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I forget.”

[102:4]  ¹⁸ sn I am unable to eat food. During his time of mourning, the psalmist refrained from eating. In the following verse he describes metaphorically the physical effects of fasting.

[102:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “from the sound of my groaning my bone[s] stick to my flesh.” The preposition at the beginning of the verse is causal; the phrase “sound of my groaning” is metonymic for the anxiety that causes the groaning. The point seems to be this: Anxiety (which causes the psalmist to groan) keeps him from eating (v. 4). This physical deprivation in turn makes him emaciated – he is turned to “skin and bones,” so to speak.

[30:17]  ²⁰ tn The subject of the verb “pierces” can be the night (personified), or it could be God (understood), leaving “night” to be an adverbial accusative of time – “at night he pierces.”

[30:17]  ²¹ tc The MT concludes this half-verse with “upon me.” That phrase is not in the LXX, and so many commentators delete it as making the line too long.

[30:17]  ²² tn Heb “my gnawers,” which is open to several interpretations. The NASB and NIV take it as “gnawing pains”; cf. NRSV “the pain that gnaws me.” Some suggest worms in the sores (7:5). The LXX has “my nerves,” a view accepted by many commentators.

[30:30]  ²³ tn The MT has “become dark from upon me,” prompting some editions to supply the verb “falls from me” (RSV, NRSV), or “peels” (NIV).

[30:30]  ²⁴ tn The word “my bones” may be taken as a metonymy of subject, the bony framework indicating the whole body.

[30:30]  ²⁵ tn The word חֹרֶב (khorev) also means “heat.” The heat in this line is not that of the sun, but obviously a fever.

[1:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Judah.” The term “Judah” is a synecdoche of nation (= Judah) for the inhabitants of the nation (= people).

[1:3]  ²⁷ tn There is a debate over the function of the preposition מִן (min): (1) temporal sense: “after” (HALOT 598 s.v. 2.c; BDB 581 s.v. 4.b) (e.g., Gen 4:3; 38:24; Josh 23:1; Judg 11:4; 14:8; Isa 24:22; Ezek 38:8; Hos 6:2) is adopted by one translation: “After affliction and harsh labor, Judah has gone into exile” (NIV). (2) causal sense: “because” (HALOT 598 s.v. 6; BDB 580 s.v. 2.f) (e.g., Isa 5:13) is adopted by many English versions: “Judah has gone into exile because of misery and harsh oppression/servitude” (cf. KJV, NKJV, RSV, NRSV, NJPS). (3) instrumentality: “by, through” (BDB 579 s.v. 2.e): “Judah has gone into exile under affliction, and under harsh servitude” (NASB). The issue here is whether this verse states that Judah went into exile after suffering a long period of trouble and toil, or that Judah went into exile because of the misery and affliction that the populace suffered under the hands of the Babylonians. For fuller treatment of this difficult syntactical problem, see D. R. Hillers, Lamentations (AB), 6-7.

[1:3]  ²⁸ tn Heb “great servitude.” The noun עֲבֹדָה (’avodah, “servitude”) refers to the enforced labor and suffering inflicted upon conquered peoples who are subjugated into slavery (Exod 1:14; 2:23; 5:9, 11; 6:9; Deut 26:6; 1 Kgs 12:4; 1 Chr 26:30; 2 Chr 10:4; 12:8; Isa 14:3; Lam 1:3).

[1:3]  ²⁹ tn The antecedent of “she” is “Judah,” which functions as a synecdoche of nation (= Judah) for the inhabitants of the nation (= people). Thus, “she” (= Judah) is tantamount to “they” (= former inhabitants of Judah).

[1:3]  ³⁰ tn The preposition בִּין (bin) is used in reference to a location: “between” (BDB 107 s.v. 1). The phrase בִּין הַמְּצָרִים (bin hammÿtsarim, “between the narrow places”) is unparalleled elsewhere in the Hebrew scriptures; however, this line is paraphrased in “The Thanksgiving Psalm” from Qumran (Hodayoth = 1QH v 29) which adds the phrase “so I could not get away.” Following the interpretation of this line at Qumran, it describes a futile attempt to flee from the enemies in narrow straits which thwarted a successful escape.

[1:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “distresses.” The noun מֵצַר (metsar, “distress”) occurs only here and in Ps 118:5 (NIV, “anguish”). Here, the plural form מְצָרִים (mÿtsarim, lit., “distresses”) is an example of the plural of intensity: “intense distress.” The phrase בִּין הַמְּצָרִים (bin hammÿtsarim, “between the narrow places”) is unparalleled elsewhere in the Hebrew scriptures; however, this line is paraphrased in “The Thanksgiving Psalm” from Qumran (Hodayoth = 1QH v 29) which adds the phrase “so I could not get away.” Following the interpretation of this line at Qumran, it describes a futile attempt to flee from the enemies in narrow straits which thwarted a successful escape.

[3:4]  ³² tn Heb “my flesh and my skin.” The two nouns joined with ו (vav), בְשָׂרִי וְעוֹרִי (basari vÿ’ori, “my flesh and my skin”), form a nominal hendiadys: the first functions adjectivally and the second retains its full nominal sense: “my mortal skin.”