Psalms 22:14-15

22:14 My strength drains away like water; ¹ 

all my bones are dislocated;

my heart ²  is like wax;

it melts away inside me.

22:15 The roof of my mouth ³  is as dry as a piece of pottery;

my tongue sticks to my gums. ⁴ 

You ⁵  set me in the dust of death. ⁶ 

Psalms 31:10

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

my years draw to a close as I groan. ⁷ 

My strength fails me because of ⁸  my sin,

and my bones become brittle. ⁹ 

Psalms 38:3

38:3 My whole body is sick because of your judgment; ¹⁰ 

I am deprived of health because of my sin. ¹¹ 

Job 30:30

30:30 My skin has turned dark on me; ¹² 

my body ¹³  is hot with fever. ¹⁴ 

Lamentations 1:13

מ (Mem)

1:13 He sent down fire ¹⁵ 

into my bones, and it overcame ¹⁶  them.

He spread out a trapper’s net ¹⁷  for my feet;

he made me turn back.

He has made me desolate;

I am faint all day long.

Lamentations 3:4

ב (Bet)

3:4 He has made my mortal skin ¹⁸  waste away;

he has broken my bones.

[22:14]  ¹ tn Heb “like water I am poured out.”

[22:14]  ² sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s strength and courage.

[22:15]  ³ 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.

[22:15]  ⁴ tn Cf. NEB “my jaw”; NASB, NRSV “my jaws”; NIV “the roof of my mouth.”

[22:15]  ⁵ 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).

[22:15]  ⁶ sn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to the progressive nature of the action. The psalmist is in the process of dying.

[31:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “and my years in groaning.”

[31:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “stumbles in.”

[31:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “grow weak.”

[38:3]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “there is no health in my bones from before my sin.”

[30:30]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn The word “my bones” may be taken as a metonymy of subject, the bony framework indicating the whole body.

[30:30]  ¹⁴ tn The word חֹרֶב (khorev) also means “heat.” The heat in this line is not that of the sun, but obviously a fever.

[1:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “He sent fire from on high.” Normally God sends fire from heaven. The idiom מִמָּרוֹם (mimmarom, “from on high”) can still suggest the location but as an idiom may focus on the quality of the referent. For example, “to speak from on high” means “to presume to speak as if from heaven” = arrogantly (Ps 73:8); “they fight against me from on high” = proudly (Ps 56:3) (BDB 928-29 s.v. מָרוֹם). As a potential locative, מִמָּרוֹם (mimmarom, “from on high”) designates God as the agent; idiomatically the same term paints him as pitiless.

[1:13]  ¹⁶ tc The MT reads וַיִּרְדֶּנָּה (vayyirdennah, “it prevailed against them”), representing a vav (ו) consecutive + Qal preterite 3rd person masculine singular + 3rd person feminine plural suffix from רָדָה (radah, “to prevail”). The LXX κατήγαγεν αὐτό (kathgagen auto, “it descended”) reflects an alternate vocalization tradition of וַיֹּרִדֶנָּה (vayyoridennah, “it descended against them”), representing a vav (ו) consecutive + Hiphil preterite 3rd person masculine singular + 3rd person feminine plural suffix from יָרָד (yarad, “to go down”), or הֹרִידָהּ (horidah, “it descended against her”), a Hiphil perfect ms + 3rd person feminine singular suffix from from יָרָד (yarad, “to go down”). Internal evidence favors the MT. The origin of the LXX vocalization can be explained by the influence of the preceding line, “He sent down fire from on high.”

[1:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “net.” The term “trapper’s” is supplied in the translation as a clarification.

[3:4]  ¹⁸ 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.”