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
31:10 For my life nears its end in pain;
my years draw to a close as I groan. 5
My strength fails me because of 6 my sin,
and my bones become brittle. 7
33:16 No king is delivered by his vast army;
a warrior is not saved by his great might.
38:10 My heart beats quickly;
my strength leaves me;
I can hardly see. 8
103:20 Praise the Lord, you angels of his,
you powerful warriors who carry out his decrees
and obey his orders! 9
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 “and my years in groaning.”
6 tn Heb “stumbles in.”
7 tn Heb “grow weak.”
9 tn Heb “and the light of my eyes, even they, there is not with me.” The “light of the eyes” may refer to physical energy (see 1 Sam 14:27, 29), life itself (Ps 13:3), or the ability to see (Prov 29:23).
13 tn Heb “[you] mighty ones of strength, doers of his word, by listening to the voice of his word.”