38:5 My wounds 1 are infected and starting to smell, 2
because of my foolish sins. 3
15:16 how much less man, who is abominable and corrupt, 4
who drinks in evil like water! 5
64:6 We are all like one who is unclean,
all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight. 6
We all wither like a leaf;
our sins carry us away like the wind.
1:1 From Paul, 9 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
1 sn The reference to wounds may be an extension of the metaphorical language of v. 2. The psalmist pictures himself as one whose flesh is ripped and torn by arrows.
2 tn Heb “my wounds stink, they are festering” (cf. NEB).
3 tn Heb “from before my foolishness.”
4 tn The two descriptions here used are “abominable,” meaning “disgusting” (a Niphal participle with the value of a Latin participle [see GKC 356-57 §116.e]), and “corrupt” (a Niphal participle which occurs only in Pss 14:3 and 53:4), always in a moral sense. On the significance of the first description, see P. Humbert, “Le substantif toáe„ba„ et le verbe táb dans l’Ancien Testament,” ZAW 72 [1960]: 217ff.). On the second word, G. R. Driver suggests from Arabic, “debauched with luxury, corrupt” (“Some Hebrew Words,” JTS 29 [1927/28]: 390-96).
5 sn Man commits evil with the same ease and facility as he drinks in water – freely and in large quantities.
6 tn Heb “and like a garment of menstruation [are] all our righteous acts”; KJV, NIV “filthy rags”; ASV “a polluted garment.”
7 sn The Lord here uses a metaphor from the realm of ritual purification. For the use of water in ritual cleansing, see Exod 30:19-20; Lev 14:51; Num 19:18; Heb 10:22.
8 tn Or “high places.”
9 tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.