Job 19:20

19:20 My bones stick to my skin and my flesh; ¹ 

I have escaped ²  alive ³  with only the skin of my teeth.

Job 33:21

33:21 His flesh wastes away from sight,

and his bones, which were not seen,

are easily visible. ⁴ 

Psalms 32:4

32:4 For day and night you tormented me; ⁵ 

you tried to destroy me ⁶  in the intense heat ⁷  of summer. ⁸  (Selah)

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 102:3-5

102:3 For my days go up in smoke, ¹¹ 

and my bones are charred like a fireplace. ¹² 

102:4 My heart is parched ¹³  and withered like grass,

for I am unable ¹⁴  to eat food. ¹⁵ 

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

my bones protrude from my skin. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 102:11

102:11 My days are coming to an end, ¹⁷ 

and I am withered like grass.

Psalms 119:83

119:83 For ¹⁸  I am like a wineskin ¹⁹  dried up in smoke. ²⁰ 

I do not forget your statutes.

[19:20]  ¹ tn The meaning would be “I am nothing but skin and bones” in current English idiom. Both lines of this verse need attention. The first half seems to say, “My skin and my flesh sticks to my bones.” Some think that this is too long, and that the bones can stick to the skin, or the flesh, but not both. Dhorme proposes “in my skin my flesh has rotted away” (רָקַב, raqav). This involves several changes in the line, however. He then changes the second line to read “and I have gnawed my bone with my teeth” (transferring “bone” from the first half and omitting “skin”). There are numerous other renderings of this; some of the more notable are: “I escape, my bones in my teeth” (Merx); “my teeth fall out” (Duhm); “my teeth fall from my gums” (Pope); “my bones protrude in sharp points” (Kissane). A. B. Davidson retains “the skin of my teeth,” meaning “gums. This is about the last thing that Job has, or he would not be able to speak. For a detailed study of this verse, D. J. A. Clines devotes two full pages of textual notes (Job [WBC], 430-31). He concludes with “My bones hang from my skin and my flesh, I am left with only the skin of my teeth.”

[19:20]  ² tn Or “I am left.”

[19:20]  ³ tn The word “alive” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[33:21]  ⁴ tc Heb “are laid bare.” This is the Qere reading; the Kethib means “bare height.” Gordis reverses the word order: “his bones are bare [i.e., crushed] so that they cannot be looked upon.” But the sense of that is not clear.

[32:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “your hand was heavy upon me.”

[32:4]  ⁶ tc Heb “my [?] was turned.” The meaning of the Hebrew term לְשַׁד (lÿshad) is uncertain. A noun לָשָׁד (lashad, “cake”) is attested in Num 11:8, but it would make no sense to understand that word in this context. It is better to emend the form to לְשֻׁדִּי (lÿshuddiy, “to my destruction”) and understand “your hand” as the subject of the verb “was turned.” In this case the text reads, “[your hand] was turned to my destruction.” In Lam 3:3 the author laments that God’s “hand” was “turned” (הָפַךְ, hafakh) against him in a hostile sense.

[32:4]  ⁷ tn The translation assumes that the plural form indicates degree. If one understands the form as a true plural, then one might translate, “in the times of drought.”

[32:4]  ⁸ sn Summer. Perhaps the psalmist suffered during the hot season and perceived the very weather as being an instrument of divine judgment. Another option is that he compares his time of suffering to the uncomfortable and oppressive heat of summer.

[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.”

[102:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for my days come to an end in smoke.”

[102:3]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Heb “struck, attacked.”

[102:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I forget.”

[102:4]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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.

[102:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “my days [are] like an extended [or “lengthening”] shadow,” that is, like a late afternoon shadow made by the descending sun that will soon be swallowed up by complete darkness.

[119:83]  ¹⁸ tn Or “even though.”

[119:83]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew word נֹאד (no’d, “leather container”) refers to a container made from animal skin which is used to hold wine or milk (see Josh 9:4, 13; Judg 4:19; 1 Sam 16:20).

[119:83]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in the smoke.”