Psalms 32:3-4

32:3 When I refused to confess my sin, ¹ 

my whole body wasted away, ² 

while I groaned in pain all day long.

32:4 For day and night you tormented me; ³ 

you tried to destroy me ⁴  in the intense heat ⁵  of summer. ⁶  (Selah)

Psalms 38:5-8

38:5 My wounds ⁷  are infected and starting to smell, ⁸ 

because of my foolish sins. ⁹ 

38:6 I am dazed ¹⁰  and completely humiliated; ¹¹ 

all day long I walk around mourning.

38:7 For I am overcome with shame ¹² 

and my whole body is sick. ¹³ 

38:8 I am numb with pain and severely battered; ¹⁴ 

I groan loudly because of the anxiety I feel. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 102:4-5

102:4 My heart is parched ¹⁶  and withered like grass,

for I am unable ¹⁷  to eat food. ¹⁸ 

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

my bones protrude from my skin. ¹⁹ 

Job 19:20

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

I have escaped ²¹  alive ²²  with only the skin of my teeth.

[32:3]  ¹ tn Heb “when I was silent.”

[32:3]  ² 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.

[32:4]  ³ tn Heb “your hand was heavy upon me.”

[32:4]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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.

[38:5]  ⁷ 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.

[38:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “my wounds stink, they are festering” (cf. NEB).

[38:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “from before my foolishness.”

[38:6]  ¹⁰ tn The verb’s precise shade of meaning in this context is not entirely clear. The verb, which literally means “to bend,” may refer to the psalmist’s posture. In Isa 21:3 it seems to mean “be confused, dazed.”

[38:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I am bowed down to excess.”

[38:7]  ¹² tn Heb “for my loins are filled with shame.” The “loins” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s emotions. The present translation assumes that נִקְלֶה (niqleh) is derived from קָלָה (qalah, “be dishonored”). Some derive it instead from a homonymic root קָלָה (qalah), meaning “to roast.” In this case one might translate “fever” (cf. NEB “my loins burn with fever”).

[38:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh” (see v. 3).

[38:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I am numb and crushed to excess.”

[38:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I roar because of the moaning of my heart.”

[102:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “struck, attacked.”

[102:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I forget.”

[102:4]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ 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.

[19:20]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn Or “I am left.”

[19:20]  ²² tn The word “alive” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.