Psalms 22:14

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.

Psalms 31:9-10

31:9 Have mercy on me, for I am in distress!

My eyes grow dim ³  from suffering. ⁴ 

I have lost my strength. ⁵ 

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

my years draw to a close as I groan. ⁶ 

My strength fails me because of ⁷  my sin,

and my bones become brittle. ⁸ 

Psalms 38:8

38:8 I am numb with pain and severely battered; ⁹ 

I groan loudly because of the anxiety I feel. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 42:5

42:5 Why are you depressed, ¹¹  O my soul? ¹² 

Why are you upset? ¹³ 

Wait for God!

For I will again give thanks

to my God for his saving intervention. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 42:11

42:11 Why are you depressed, ¹⁵  O my soul? ¹⁶ 

Why are you upset? ¹⁷ 

Wait for God!

For I will again give thanks

to my God for his saving intervention. ¹⁸ 

Psalms 77:2-3

77:2 In my time of trouble I sought ¹⁹  the Lord.

I kept my hand raised in prayer throughout the night. ²⁰ 

I ²¹  refused to be comforted.

77:3 I said, “I will remember God while I groan;

I will think about him while my strength leaves me.” ²²  (Selah)

Proverbs 18:14

18:14 A person’s spirit ²³  sustains him through sickness –

but who can bear ²⁴  a crushed spirit? ²⁵ 

Matthew 26:38

26:38 Then he said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.”

[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.

[31:9]  ³ tn Or perhaps, “are swollen.”

[31:9]  ⁴ tn Cf. Ps 6:7, which has a similar line.

[31:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “my breath and my stomach [grow weak].” Apparently the verb in the previous line (“grow dim, be weakened”) is to be understood here. The Hebrew term נפשׁ can mean “life,” or, more specifically, “throat, breath.” The psalmist seems to be lamenting that his breathing is impaired because of the physical and emotional suffering he is forced to endure.

[31:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “and my years in groaning.”

[31:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “stumbles in.”

[31:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “grow weak.”

[38:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “I am numb and crushed to excess.”

[38:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I roar because of the moaning of my heart.”

[42:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”

[42:5]  ¹² sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.

[42:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “and [why] are you in turmoil upon me?” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries on the descriptive present nuance of the preceding imperfect. See GKC 329 §111.t.

[42:5]  ¹⁴ tc Heb “for again I will give him thanks, the saving acts of his face.” The verse division in the Hebrew text is incorrect. אֱלֹהַי (’elohay, “my God”) at the beginning of v. 7 belongs with the end of v. 6 (see the corresponding refrains in 42:11 and 43:5, both of which end with “my God” after “saving acts of my face”). The Hebrew term פָּנָיו (panayv, “his face”) should be emended to פְּנֵי (pÿney, “face of”). The emended text reads, “[for] the saving acts of the face of my God,” that is, the saving acts associated with God’s presence/intervention.

[42:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”

[42:11]  ¹⁶ sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.

[42:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and why are you in turmoil upon me?”

[42:11]  ¹⁸ tc Heb “for again I will give him thanks, the saving acts of my face and my God.” The last line should be emended to read יְשׁוּעֹת פְנֵי אֱלֹהָי (yÿshu’ot fÿney ’elohay, “[for] the saving acts of the face of my God”), that is, the saving acts associated with God’s presence/intervention. This refrain is almost identical to the one in v. 5. See also Ps 43:5.

[77:2]  ¹⁹ tn Here the psalmist refers back to the very recent past, when he began to pray for divine help.

[77:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “my hand [at] night was extended and was not growing numb.” The verb נָגַר (nagar), which can mean “flow” in certain contexts, here has the nuance “be extended.” The imperfect form (תָפוּג, tafug, “to be numb”) is used here to describe continuous action in the past.

[77:2]  ²¹ tn Or “my soul.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[77:3]  ²² tn Heb “I will remember God and I will groan, I will reflect and my spirit will grow faint.” The first three verbs are cohortatives, the last a perfect with vav (ו) consecutive. The psalmist’s statement in v. 4 could be understood as concurrent with v. 1, or, more likely, as a quotation of what he had said earlier as he prayed to God (see v. 2). The words “I said” are supplied in the translation at the beginning of the verse to reflect this interpretation (see v. 10).

[18:14]  ²³ tn Heb “the spirit of a man.” Because the verb of this clause is a masculine form, some have translated this line as “with spirit a man sustains,” but that is an unnecessary change.

[18:14]  ²⁴ sn This is a rhetorical question, asserting that very few can cope with depression.

[18:14]  ²⁵ sn The figure of a “crushed spirit” (ASV, NAB, NCV, NRSV “a broken spirit,” comparing depression to something smashed or crushed) suggests a broken will, a loss of vitality, despair, and emotional pain. In physical sickness one can fall back on the will to live; but in depression even the will to live is gone.