Psalms 6:6

6:6 I am exhausted as I groan;

all night long I drench my bed in tears; ¹ 

my tears saturate the cushion beneath me. ² 

Psalms 6:8

6:8 Turn back from me, all you who behave wickedly, ³ 

for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping! ⁴ 

Psalms 32:3-4

32:3 When I refused to confess my sin, ⁵ 

my whole body wasted away, ⁶ 

while I groaned in pain all day long.

32:4 For day and night you tormented me; ⁷ 

you tried to destroy me ⁸  in the intense heat ⁹  of summer. ¹⁰  (Selah)

Psalms 38:8-10

38:8 I am numb with pain and severely battered; ¹¹ 

I groan loudly because of the anxiety I feel. ¹² 

38:9 O Lord, you understand my heart’s desire; ¹³ 

my groaning is not hidden from you.

38:10 My heart beats quickly;

my strength leaves me;

I can hardly see. ¹⁴ 

Job 19:20

19:20 My bones stick to my skin and my flesh; ¹⁵ 

I have escaped ¹⁶  alive ¹⁷  with only the skin of my teeth.

Proverbs 17:22

17:22 A cheerful heart ¹⁸  brings good healing, ¹⁹ 

but a crushed spirit ²⁰  dries up the bones. ²¹ 

Lamentations 4:8

ח (Khet)

4:8 Now their appearance ²²  is darker than soot;

they are not recognized in the streets.

Their skin has shriveled on their bones;

it is dried up, like tree bark.

[6:6]  ¹ tn Heb “I cause to swim through all the night my bed.”

[6:6]  ² tn Heb “with my tears my bed I flood/melt.”

[6:8]  ³ tn Heb “all [you] workers of wickedness.” See Ps 5:5.

[6:8]  ⁴ sn The Lord has heard. The psalmist’s mood abruptly changes because the Lord responded positively to the lament and petition of vv. 1-7 and promised him deliverance.

[32:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “when I was silent.”

[32:3]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “your hand was heavy upon me.”

[32:4]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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.

[38:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I am numb and crushed to excess.”

[38:8]  ¹² tn Heb “I roar because of the moaning of my heart.”

[38:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “O Lord, before you [is] all my desire.”

[38:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and the light of my eyes, even they, there is not with me.” The “light of the eyes” may refer to physical energy (see 1 Sam 14:27, 29), life itself (Ps 13:3), or the ability to see (Prov 29:23).

[19:20]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Or “I am left.”

[19:20]  ¹⁷ tn The word “alive” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[17:22]  ¹⁸ sn Heb “a heart of rejoicing”; KJV “a merry heart”; NAB, NASB “a joyful heart.” This attributive genitive refers to the mind or psyche. A happy and healthy outlook on life brings healing.

[17:22]  ¹⁹ tc The word “healing” is a hapax legomenon; some have suggested changes, such as to Arabic jihatu (“face”) or to גְּוִיָּה (gÿviah, “body”) as in the Syriac and Tg. Prov 17:22, but the MT makes sense as it is and should be retained.

[17:22]  ²⁰ sn The “crushed spirit” refers to one who is depressed (cf. NAB “a depressed spirit”). “Crushed” is figurative (an implied comparison) for the idea that one’s psyche or will to go on is beaten down by circumstances.

[17:22]  ²¹ sn The “bones” figuratively represent the whole body encased in a boney framework (metonymy of subject). “Fat bones” in scripture means a healthy body (3:8; 15:30; 16:24), but “dried up” bones signify unhealthiness and lifelessness (cf. Ezek 37:1-4).

[4:8]  ²² tn Heb “their outline” or “their form.” The Hebrew noun תֹּאַר (to’ar, “outline, form”) is related to the Phoenician noun תֹּאַר (to’ar, “something gazed at”), and Aramaic verb תָּאַר (ta’ar, “to gaze at”). It is used in reference to the form of a woman (Gen 29:17; Deut 21:11; 1 Sam 25:3; Esth 2:7) and of a man (Gen 39:11; Judg 8:18; 1 Sam 16:18; 28:14; 1 Kgs 1:6; 1 Chr 17:17; Isa 52:14; 53:2). Here it is used in a metonymical sense: “appearance.”