For my soul was grieved. I was embittered in my heart.
Emotional pain registers as a physical sensation in the kidneys.
Medicine
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The cited passage
What current science says
Emotional pain is processed in the brain, primarily in the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula — the same regions that process physical pain, which is why heartbreak can literally 'hurt.' But kidneys? They're busy filtering about 180 liters of blood per day and couldn't care less about your feelings. The 'gut feeling' sensation during emotional distress comes from your enteric nervous system (500 million neurons lining your digestive tract) and stress hormones like cortisol — not from your kidneys getting their feelings hurt.
What the text says
This comes from Psalms 73:21. 'I was pricked in my reins' — the writer describes emotional anguish as a literal stabbing sensation in the kidneys, reflecting the belief that kidneys process feelings.
Three honest ways to read this passage
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As history
The text records how its authors understood the world with the knowledge they had. Read this way, a difference from modern science is a window into the ancient mind, not a failure.
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As accommodation
The text speaks to its first audience in their own terms, to make a point that isn't mainly about physics or biology. Read this way, the scientific detail is the vehicle, not the cargo.
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As contradiction
The text makes a claim about the physical world that modern findings dispute. Read this way, the difference is a genuine factual disagreement worth naming.
GEBible doesn't pick one of these for you. Each entry shows the passage, what it says, and what current science says — nothing more.