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 32:3

32:3 When I refused to confess my sin, ³ 

my whole body wasted away, ⁴ 

while I groaned in pain all day long.

Psalms 34:20

34:20 He protects ⁵  all his bones; ⁶ 

not one of them is broken. ⁷ 

Psalms 38:3

38:3 My whole body is sick because of your judgment; ⁸ 

I am deprived of health because of my sin. ⁹ 

Psalms 51:8

51:8 Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven! ¹⁰ 

May the bones ¹¹  you crushed rejoice! ¹² 

Psalms 102:3

102:3 For my days go up in smoke, ¹³ 

and my bones are charred like a fireplace. ¹⁴ 

Job 33:19-25

33:19 Or a person is chastened ¹⁵  by pain on his bed,

and with the continual strife of his bones, ¹⁶ 

33:20 so that his life loathes food,

and his soul rejects appetizing fare. ¹⁷ 

33:21 His flesh wastes away from sight,

and his bones, which were not seen,

are easily visible. ¹⁸ 

33:22 He ¹⁹  draws near to the place of corruption,

and his life to the messengers of death. ²⁰ 

33:23 If there is an angel beside him,

one mediator ²¹  out of a thousand,

to tell a person what constitutes his uprightness; ²² 

33:24 and if ²³  God ²⁴  is gracious to him and says,

‘Spare ²⁵  him from going down

to the place of corruption,

I have found a ransom for him,’ ²⁶ 

33:25 then his flesh is restored ²⁷  like a youth’s;

he returns to the days of his youthful vigor. ²⁸ 

[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.

[32:3]  ³ tn Heb “when I was silent.”

[32:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “my bones became brittle.” The psalmist pictures himself as aging and growing physically weak. Trying to cover up his sin brought severe physical consequences.

[34:20]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew participial form suggests such protection is characteristic.

[34:20]  ⁶ tn That is, he protects the godly from physical harm.

[34:20]  ⁷ sn Not one of them is broken. The author of the Gospel of John saw a fulfillment of these words in Jesus’ experience on the cross (see John 19:31-37), for the Roman soldiers, when they saw that Jesus was already dead, did not break his legs as was customarily done to speed the death of crucified individuals. John’s use of the psalm seems strange, for the statement in its original context suggests that the Lord protects the godly from physical harm. Jesus’ legs may have remained unbroken, but he was brutally and unjustly executed by his enemies. John seems to give the statement a literal sense that is foreign to its original literary context by applying a promise of divine protection to a man who was seemingly not saved by God. However, John saw in this incident a foreshadowing of Jesus’ ultimate deliverance and vindication. His unbroken bones were a reminder of God’s commitment to the godly and a sign of things to come. Jesus’ death on the cross was not the end of the story; God vindicated him, as John goes on to explain in the following context (John 19:38-20:18).

[38:3]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “there is no health in my bones from before my sin.”

[51:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “cause me to hear happiness and joy.” The language is metonymic: the effect of forgiveness (joy) has been substituted for its cause. The psalmist probably alludes here to an assuring word from God announcing that his sins are forgiven (a so-called oracle of forgiveness). The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request. The synonyms “happiness” and “joy” are joined together as a hendiadys to emphasize the degree of joy he anticipates.

[51:8]  ¹¹ sn May the bones you crushed rejoice. The psalmist compares his sinful condition to that of a person who has been physically battered and crushed. Within this metaphorical framework, his “bones” are the seat of his emotional strength.

[51:8]  ¹² tn In this context of petitionary prayer, the prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive, expressing the psalmist’s wish or request.

[102:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “for my days come to an end in smoke.”

[102:3]  ¹⁴ 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.

[33:19]  ¹⁵ tc The MT has the passive form, and so a subject has to be added: “[a man] is chastened.” The LXX has the active form, indicating “[God] chastens,” but the object “a man” has to be added. It is understandable why the LXX thought this was active, within this sequence of verbs; and that is why it is the inferior reading.

[33:19]  ¹⁶ tc The Kethib “the strife of his bones is continual,” whereas the Qere has “the multitude of his bones are firm.” The former is the better reading in this passage. It indicates that the pain is caused by the ongoing strife.

[33:20]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “food of desire.” The word “rejects” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[33:21]  ¹⁸ 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.

[33:22]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “his soul [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh, “life”] draws near.”

[33:22]  ²⁰ tn The MT uses the Hiphil participle, “to those who cause death.” This seems to be a reference to the belief in demons that brought about death, an idea not mentioned in the Bible itself. Thus many proposals have been made for this expression. Hoffmann and Budde divide the word into לְמוֹ מֵתִּים (lÿmo metim) and simply read “to the dead.” Dhorme adds a couple of letters to get לִמְקוֹם מֵתִּים (limqom metim, “to the place [or abode] of the dead”).

[33:23]  ²¹ sn The verse is describing the way God can preserve someone from dying by sending a messenger (translated here as “angel”), who could be human or angelic. This messenger will interpret/mediate God’s will. By “one … out of a thousand” Elihu could have meant either that one of the thousands of messengers at God’s disposal might be sent or that the messenger would be unique (see Eccl 7:28; and cp. Job 9:3).

[33:23]  ²² tn This is a smoother reading. The MT has “to tell to a man his uprightness,” to reveal what is right for him. The LXX translated this word “duty”; the choice is adopted by some commentaries. However, that is too far from the text, which indicates that the angel/messenger is to call the person to uprightness.

[33:24]  ²³ tn This verse seems to continue the protasis begun in the last verse, with the apodosis coming in the next verse.

[33:24]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:24]  ²⁵ tc The verb is either taken as an anomalous form of פָּדַע (pada’, “to rescue; to redeem,” or “to exempt him”), or it is emended to some similar word, like פָּרַע (para’, “to let loose,” so Wright).

[33:24]  ²⁶ sn This verse and v. 28 should be compared with Ps 49:7-9, 15 (8-10, 16 HT) where the same basic vocabulary and concepts are employed.

[33:25]  ²⁷ tc The word רֻטֲפַשׁ (rutafash) is found nowhere else. One suggestion is that it should be יִרְטַב (yirtav, “to become fresh”), connected to רָטַב (ratav, “to be well watered [or moist]”). It is also possible that it was a combination of רָטַב (ratav, “to be well watered”) and טָפַשׁ (tafash, “to grow fat”). But these are all guesses in the commentaries.

[33:25]  ²⁸ tn The word describes the period when the man is healthy and vigorous, ripe for what life brings his way.