Psalms 22:15

22:15 The roof of my mouth ¹  is as dry as a piece of pottery;

my tongue sticks to my gums. ² 

You ³  set me in the dust of death. ⁴ 

Lamentations 4:4

ד (Dalet)

4:4 The infant’s tongue sticks

to the roof of its mouth due to thirst;

little children beg for bread, ⁵ 

but no one gives them even a morsel. ⁶ 

Luke 16:24

16:24 So ⁷  he called out, ⁸  ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus ⁹  to dip the tip of his finger ¹⁰  in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish ¹¹  in this fire.’ ¹² 

¹ tc Heb “my strength” (כֹּחִי, kokhiy), but many prefer to emend the text to חִכִּי (khikiy, “my palate”; cf. NEB, NRSV “my mouth”) assuming that an error of transposition has occurred in the traditional Hebrew text.

² tn Cf. NEB “my jaw”; NASB, NRSV “my jaws”; NIV “the roof of my mouth.”

³ sn Here the psalmist addresses God and suggests that God is ultimately responsible for what is happening because of his failure to intervene (see vv. 1-2, 11).

⁴ sn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to the progressive nature of the action. The psalmist is in the process of dying.

⁵ tn Heb “bread.” The term “bread” might function as a synecdoche of specific (= bread) for general (= food); however, the following parallel line does indeed focus on the act of breaking bread in two.

⁶ tn Heb “there is not a divider to them.” The term פָּרַשׂ (paras), Qal active participle ms from פָּרַס (paras, “to divide”) refers to the action of breaking bread in two before giving it to a person to eat (Isa 58:7; Jer 16:7; Lam 4:4). The form פָּרַשׂ (paras) is the alternate spelling of the more common פָּרַס (paras).

⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of previous actions in the narrative.

⁸ tn Grk “calling out he said”; this is redundant in contemporary English style and has been simplified to “he called out.”

⁹ sn The rich man had not helped Lazarus before, when he lay outside his gate (v. 2), but he knew him well enough to know his name. This is why the use of the name Lazarus in the parable is significant. (The rich man’s name, on the other hand, is not mentioned, because it is not significant for the point of the story.)

¹⁰ sn The dipping of the tip of his finger in water is evocative of thirst. The thirsty are in need of God’s presence (Ps 42:1-2; Isa 5:13). The imagery suggests the rich man is now separated from the presence of God.

¹¹ tn Or “in terrible pain” (L&N 24.92).

¹² sn Fire in this context is OT imagery; see Isa 66:24.