Psalms 40:12(v4)For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs…
Ezra 9:6(v4)and I said, “My God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God; for our iniquities have increased over our head, and our…
Matthew 11:28(v4)“Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.
Job 6:4(v2)For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.
Job 30:28(v6)I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.
Show all 44 cross-references
Psalms 6:2(v3)Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint. Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
Psalms 32:4(v2)For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer.
Psalms 35:14(v6)I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.
Lamentations 1:14(v4)“The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand. They are knit together. They have come up on my neck. He made my strength fail. The…
Isaiah 1:5-6(vv3, 5)Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot…
Psalms 42:9(v6)I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
Psalms 51:8(v3)Let me hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice.
1 Peter 2:24(v4)He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds.
Leviticus 7:18(v4)If any of the meat of the sacrifice of his peace offerings is eaten on the third day, it will not be accepted, and it shall not be credited…
Deuteronomy 2:15(v2)Moreover Yahweh’s hand was against them, to destroy them from the middle of the camp, until they were consumed.
1 Samuel 5:6(v2)But Yahweh’s hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and he destroyed them and struck them with tumors, even Ashdod and its borders.
Psalms 31:9-10(v3)Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief. For my life is spent with sorrow, my…
Psalms 31:10(v6)For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.
Psalms 42:5(v6)Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his…
Psalms 43:2(v6)For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
Psalms 69:5(v5)God, you know my foolishness. My sins aren’t hidden from you.
Psalms 145:14(v6)Yahweh upholds all who fall, and raises up all those who are bowed down.
Isaiah 53:11(v4)After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of…
Jeremiah 8:22(v5)Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then isn’t the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
Lamentations 3:12(v2)He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
Ruth 1:13(v2)would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieves me seriously for…
1 Samuel 5:11(v2)They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and they said, “Send the ark of the God of Israel away, and let…
1 Samuel 6:9(v2)Behold, if it goes up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has done us this great evil; but if not, then we shall know…
Psalms 6:6(v6)I am weary with my groaning. Every night I flood my bed. I drench my couch with my tears.
Psalms 21:12(v2)For you will make them turn their back, when you aim drawn bows at their face.
Psalms 32:3(v5)When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
Psalms 38:7(v5)For my waist is filled with burning. There is no soundness in my flesh.
Psalms 39:10-11(v2)Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand. When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, you consume his…
Psalms 57:6(v6)They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They dig a pit before me. They fall into the middle of it themselves.
Psalms 64:7(v2)But God will shoot at them. They will be suddenly struck down with an arrow.
Psalms 88:9(v6)My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, Yahweh. I have spread out my hands to you.
Lamentations 3:40-42(v3)Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh. Let’s lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens. “We have…
2 Chronicles 26:19(v3)Then Uzziah was angry. He had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and while he was angry with the priests, the leprosy broke out on his…
Job 2:7-8(v3)So Satan went out from the presence of Yahweh, and struck Job with painful sores from the sole of his foot to his head. He took for himself…
Job 33:19-22(v3)He is chastened also with pain on his bed, with continual strife in his bones, so that his life abhors bread, and his soul dainty food. His…
Psalms 90:7-8(v3)For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of…
Psalms 102:3(v3)For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.
Psalms 102:5(v3)By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.
Isaiah 38:14(v6)I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security.”
44 distinct cross-references across this passage (45 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (18 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv2–62. For thy arrows go down in me. He…
2. For thy arrows go down in me. He shows that he was constrained by dire necessity to ask an alleviation of his misery; for he was crushed under the weight of the burden which he sustained. This rule is always to be observed in our prayers — to keep God’s promises present to our view. But God has promised that he will chastise his servants, not according to their deserts, but as they are able to bear. This is the reason why the saints so often speak of their own weakness, when they are severely oppressed with affliction. David very properly describes the malady under which he labored, by the terms, the arrows and the hand, or the chastisement of God. Had he not been persuaded that it was God who thus afflicted him, he could never have been brought to seek from him deliverance from his affliction. We know that the great majority of men are blinded under the judgments of God, and imagine that they are entirely the events of chance; and scarcely one in a hundred discerns in them the hand of God. But, in his sickness, as in all his other adversities, David views the hand of God lifted up to punish him for his sins. And certainly, the man who estimates his affliction only by the feeling of pain which it produces, and views it in no other light, differs nothing from the beasts of the field. As every chastisement of God should remind us of his judgment, the true wisdom of the saints, as the prophet declares,
“to look to the hand of him who smiteth.”— (Isaiah 9:13)
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The pronoun thy is therefore emphatic. David’s words are, as if he had said, I have not to do with a mortal man, who can shoot his arrows with a force only in proportion to his own strength, but I have to do with God, who can discharge the arrows that come from his hand with a force altogether overwhelming.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv2–6Psa 38:2 For thine arrows stick fast in me,…
Psa 38:2 For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.
Ver. 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me] i.e. Sicknesses of body and troubles of mind, Job 6:4 Psa 18:14. The Jewish doctors say, that he had a leprosy for six months; and that the Divine presence was taken away from him; so that he complained not without uause (R. Obadiah). But these were sagittae salutis, saith Chrysostom; arrows of salvation, love tokens from the Lord, Dens amat quos sagittat (Aug.), not unlike Jonathan’s arrows, 1Sa 20:36, and he had been forewarned of them by Nathan the prophet, 2Sa 12:9-12, and so bore them the better. Praevisa iacula minus feriunt, Darts foreseen are in a manner dintless.
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And thy hand presseth me sore] Heb. Thou lettest down thy hand upon me. Now, God’s hand is a mighty hand, 1Pe 5:6, and the weight of it is importable, but that una eademque manus, &c.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv2–6Thine arrows, i.e. thy judgments inflicted upon my outward…
Thine arrows, i.e. thy judgments inflicted upon my outward and inward man, oft compared to arrows, as Deu 32:23; Psa 7:13; 45:5; 91:5.
Presseth me sore; or, comes down upon me; as when a strong man lifts up his hand and weapon, that it may fall down with greater violence, and make the deeper wound.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv2–6There is no soundness in my flesh, because of…
There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger,.... Such was the nature of the affliction the psalmist laboured under, and which he took to be an effect of the anger of God towards him, that the whole frame of nature was affected with it, and from the crown of the head to, the soles of the feet there was no health or soundness, as in Isa 1:6; where the same word is used as here; some think the word (g) here used has the signification of man; and that the sense is, that through, the violence of the distemper he had not so much, as the form of a man, as his antitype in Isa 52:14; and as this led him to a view of his sins, as the cause of his affliction, he was so far from thinking himself sound and whole, or perfect in a spiritual sense, that he saw he was all over diseased with sin, and that in his flesh dwelt no good thing;
neither is there any rest in my bones, because of my sin; or "peace" (h) there; sin breaks the believer's rest, and disturbs his peace; nor can he, in a view of it, find any rest in himself, nor in any creature, nor in any service or duty, only in Jesus Christ, his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice.
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(g) "non superest amplius ulla forma seu figura hominis", Amama; so Joseph Kimchi. (h) "non (est) pax", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Musculus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv2–5Arrows - Thy judgments outward and inward.
Arrows - Thy judgments outward and inward.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv2–6Verse 2. Thine arrows stick fast in me] This…
Verse 2. Thine arrows stick fast in me] This no doubt, refers to the acute pains which he endured; each appearing to his feeling as if an arrow were shot into his body.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v3Psa 38:3-6. There is no soundness, &c. — My…
Psa 38:3-6. There is no soundness, &c. — My disease or grief hath seized upon all the parts of my body, my very bones not excepted, so that my bed can give me no rest; because of my sin — Which hath provoked thee to deal thus severely with me. For my iniquities, &c. — Or, the punishment of my iniquities, as this word is frequently used; are gone over my head — Like deep waters, wherewith I am overwhelmed. My wounds are corrupt — The bruises and sores, caused by my disease, are not only painful, but loathsome to myself and others; because of my foolishness — As a just punishment of my folly; whereby, to satisfy my unreasonable desires, I have inconsiderately offended thee, 2Sa 11:2-4. I am troubled — ינעוותי, nagnaveeti, I am distorted, or depressed; or, as it is expressed by another word, signifying the same thing, bowed down, namely, in my body, as diseased persons generally are, and withal dejected in my mind. I go mourning — Hebrew, in black; the sign of mourning, which may here be taken figuratively. When I rise out of my bed, and walk, or rather creep about in my chamber, I do it with a sad heart and a dejected countenance. Or going may be here meant of his languishing, or going toward the grave, as this same word is used sometimes.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv2–6For thine arrows stick fast in me - See…
For thine arrows stick fast in me - See the notes at Job 6:4. The word rendered “stick fast” - נחת nâchath - means properly to go or come down; to descend; and the literal idea here would be, “thine arrows come down upon me.” It is not so much the idea of their “sticking fast” when in the wound or flesh; it is that they come down upon one, and pierce him. The meaning is, that he was afflicted “as if” God had wounded him with arrows - arrows which pierced deep in his flesh. Compare the notes at Psa 45:5. The allusion is to the disease with which he was afflicted.
And thy hand presseth me sore - The same word is used here which in the former part of the verse is rendered “stick fast.” The idea is, that the hand of God had “descended” or “come down” upon him, prostrating his strength, and laying him on a bed of pain.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv2, 4, 5arrows . . . and thy hand--the sharp and…
arrows . . . and thy hand--the sharp and heavy afflictions he suffered (Deu 32:23).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv2–62. Arrows—See Job_6:4. The arrows sticking fast, are a…
2. Arrows—See Job_6:4. The arrows sticking fast, are a proof that they had entered deep into the flesh.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv2–62. God’s ‘arrows’ are His judgements in general (Psa_7:12…
2. God’s ‘arrows’ are His judgements in general (Psa_7:12 : Deu_32:23); here in particular pain and sickness (Job_6:4; Job_16:12-13; Lam_3:12-13). Blow after blow from God’s ‘hand’ (Psa_32:4; Psa_39:10) has lighted upon him. Stick fast and presseth sore are renderings of different voices of the same verb, meaning literally to come down, to light upon.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv2–6(2) For thine arrows . . .—The same figure…
(2) For thine arrows . . .—The same figure is used of the disease from which Job suffered (elephantiasis? Job_6:4); of famine (Eze_5:16); and generally of divine judgments (Deu_32:23). By itself it therefore decides nothing as to the particular cause of the Psalmist’s grief.
Stick fast.—Better, have sunk into, from a root meaning to descend. Presseth, in the next clause, is from the same verb. Translate, therefore,
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For thine arrows have fallen deep into me,
And fallen upon me has thine hand.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv2–6For thine arrows stick fast in me. (On the…
For thine arrows stick fast in me. (On the "arrows" of the Almighty, see above, Psa_7:13; and comp. Job_6:4 Psa_18:14 Psa_45:5 Psa_64:7 Psa_77:17, etc.) It has been maintained that by "God"s arrows" only sickness is meant (Hitzig); but the contrary appears from Deu_32:23-25. Hengstenberg is right, "The arrows of the Almighty denote all the chastisements of sin depending on God." And thy hand presseth me sore. The verb used is the same in both clauses; but it is difficult to express both ideas by one term in English. Dr. Kay makes the attempt by translating, "For thine arrows have sunk deep in me; yea, thine hand sank heavily on me."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv2–6Ver. 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me.…
Ver. 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me. By this he means both bodily and spiritual griefs, but we may suppose, especially the latter, for these are most piercing and stick the fastest. God's law applied by the Spirit to the conviction of the soul of sin, wounds deeply and rankles long; it is an arrow not lightly to be brushed out by careless mirthfulness, or to be extracted by the flattering hand of self righteousness. The Lord knows how to shoot so that his bolts not only strike but stick. He can make convictions sink into the innermost spirit like arrows driven in up to the head. It seems strange that the Lord should shoot at his own beloved ones, but in truth he shoots at their sins rather than them, and those who feel his sin killing shafts in this life, shall not be slain with his hot thunderbolts in the next world. And thy hand presseth me sore. The Lord had come to close dealings with him, and pressed him down with the weight of his hand, so that he had no rest or strength left. By these two expressions we are taught that conviction of sin is a piercing and a pressing thing, sharp and sore, smarting and crushing. Those who know by experience "the terrors of the Lord, "will be best able to vouch for the accuracy of such descriptions; they are true to the life.
Ver. 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me. First, we shall see in what respect he calls them arrows: and therein, first, that they are alienae, they are shot from others, they are not in his own power; a man shoots not an arrow at himself; and then that they are veloces, swift in coming, he cannot give them their time; and again, they are vix visibiles, though they be not altogether invisible in their cunning, yet there is required a quick eye, and an express diligence and watchfulness to avoid them; so they are arrows in the hand of another, not his own; and swift as they come, and invisible before they come. And secondly, they are many arrows, the victory lies not in escaping one or two. And thirdly, they stick in him: they find not David so good proof as to rebound back again, and imprint no sense: and they stick Fast: though the blow be felt and the wound discerned, yet there is not a present cure, he cannot shake them off; infixae sunt, and then, with all this, they stick fast in him; that is, in all him; in his body and soul; in him, in his thoughts and actions; in him, in his sins and in his good works too; infixae mihi, there is no part of him, no faculty in him, in which they stick not; for (which may well be another consideration), that hand, which shot them, presses him: follows the blow, and presses him sore, that is, vehemently. But yet (which will be our conclusion), sagittae tuae, thy arrows, and manus tua, thy hand, these arrows that are shot, and this hand that presses him so sore, are the arrows, and the hand of God; and therefore, first, they must have their effect, they cannot be disappointed; but yet they bring their comfort with them, because they are his, because no arrows from him, no pressing with his hand, comes without that balsamum of mercy to heal as fast as he wounds. John Donne.
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Ver. 2. Thine arrows stick fast. Though importunity be to God most pleasing always, yet to us it is then most necessary when the cheerful face of God is turned into frowns, and when there is a justly conceived fear of the continuance of his anger: and have I not just cause to fear it, having the arrows of his anger sticking so fast in me? If he had meant to make me but a butt, at which to shoot his arrows, he would quickly, I suppose, have taken them up again; but now that he leaves them sticking in me, what can I think, but that he means to make me his quiver; and then I may look long enough before he come to pluck them out. They are arrows, indeed, that are feathered with swiftness, and headed with sharpness; and to give them a force in flying, they are shot, I may say, out of his crossbow, I am sure his bow of crosses; for no arrows can fly so fast, none pierce so deep, as the crosses and afflictions with which he hath surprised me: I may truly say surprised me, seeing when I thought myself most safe, and said, "I shall never be moved, "even then, these arrows of his anger lighted upon me, and stick so fast in my flesh, that no arm but his that shot them, is ever able to draw them forth. Oh, then, as thou hast stretched forth thine arm of anger, O God, to shoot these arrows at me, so stretch forth thine arm of mercy to draw them forth, that I may rather sing hymns than dirges unto thee; and that thou mayest show thy power, as well in pardoning as thou hast done in condemning. Sir Richard Baker.
Ver. 2. Thine arrows. Arrows are (1) swift, (2) secret, (3) sharp (4) killing instruments. They are instruments drawing blood and drinking blood, even unto drunkenness De 32:42; afflictions are like arrows in all these properties. 1. Afflictions often come very speedily, with a glance as an arrow, quick as a thought. 2. Afflictions come suddenly, unexpectedly; an arrow is upon a man afore he is aware, so are afflictions. Though Job saith, the thing he feared came upon him, he looked for this arrow before it came; yet usually afflictions are unlooked for guests, they thrust in upon us when we dream not of them. 3. They come with little noise; an arrow is felt before, or, as soon as it is heard; an arrow flies silently and secretly, stealing upon and wounding a man, unobserved and unseen. Lastly, all afflictions are sharp, and in their own nature killing and deadly. That any have good from them, is from the grace of God, not from their nature. Joseph Caryl.
Ver. 2. Let no one think these expressions of penitence Ps 38:1-4 overstrained or excessive. They are the words of the Holy Spirit of God, speaking by the mouth of the man after God's own heart. If we were as repentant as David, we should bring home to ourselves his language; as it is, our affections are chilled, and therefore we do not enter into his words...And let us observe how all the miseries are referred to their proper end. The sin is not bewailed merely on account of its ill effect on the guilty one, but on account of the despite done to God. The psalmist's first thought is the "anger" of the Lord, and his hot displeasure. It is not the "arrows" that afflict him so much as that they are God's. "Thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me." The reason why there is no health in his flesh is because of God's displeasure. Such is true contrition, "not the sorrow of the world which worketh death, but the sorrow that worketh repentance not to be repented of." A Commentary on the Seven Penitential Psalms. Chiefly from Ancient Sources, (by A.P.F.) 1847.
Ver. 2. Thy hand presseth me sore. Not the hand of Egypt or Ashur; then it were hand for hand, a duel of some equality: hand to hand; here forces and stratagems might achieve a victory: but Thy hand. The weight of a man's blow is but weak, according to the force and pulse of his arm; as the princes of Midian answered Gideon, when he bade his son try the dint of his sword upon them; "Rise thou, and fall upon us: for as the man is, so is his strength." Jud 8:21. But "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Heb 10:31. As Homer called the hands of Jupiter ceirez aeptoi, hands whose praise could not be sufficiently spoken; which some read ceires aaptoii, hands inaccessible, irresistible for strength: all the gods in heaven could not ward a blow of Jupiter's hand. This hand never strikes but for sin; and where sin is mighty his blow is heavy. Thomas Adams.
Ver. 2. God sharply chasteneth many of his children, and yet for all that he loves them never a whit the less, nor withholdeth in good time his mercy from them. Thomas Wilcocks.
Psalms 38:3*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv2–6For Thine arrows stick fast in me, and Thy…
Psa_38:2
For Thine arrows stick fast in me, and Thy hand presseth me sore.
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Gods arrows
Those arrows commonly are either wicked men or devils, whom God sendeth forth to afflict His own children, sharp as arrows, light and swift as arrows, and ready to do harm to Gods saints; or else sickness, poverty, infamy, and such other afflictions, whereby our most gracious Father thinketh most fit to subdue our vile corruption: all which, albeit in their own nature they are evil, yet God can convert and turn them to the utility and profit of His own children. As a physician can use the most poisionable and venomous herbs to cure the most desperate diseases; yea, the flesh of the dead serpent, to cure the wound gotten by the living serpent: so God can convert and turn the mischievous machinations of our enemies to our salvation. (A. Symson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv3, 5General Information:
General Information:
David continues describing what his guilt and shame does to his body. He uses hyperbole to emphasize the effects of this lesson.
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there is no health in my bones because of my sin
Here "my bones" represents the body of the writer. AT: "my whole body is diseased because of my sin" (See: Synecdoche)
my iniquities overwhelm me
The writer's iniquities are spoken of as if they are a flood of water that covers him. AT: "my iniquities cover me like a flood" (See: Metaphor)
they are a burden too heavy for me
The writer's iniquities are spoken of as if they are a heavy load that he cannot lift. AT: "they are like a load that is too heavy for me to lift" (See: Metaphor)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv3–538:3 Sin can lead to sickness and even death…
38:3 Sin can lead to sickness and even death (1 Cor 11:30). Whether the psalmist actually felt physically ill or his sickness was a metaphor for emotional turmoil, he knew that it came from God and threatened his life (see Pss 32:3; 39:10).
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv2–6 2. For thy arrows go down in me. He…
2. For thy arrows go down in me. He shows that he was constrained by dire necessity to ask an alleviation of his misery; for he was crushed under the weight of the burden which he sustained. This rule is always to be observed in our prayers — to keep God’s promises present to our view. But God has promised that he will chastise his servants, not according to their deserts, but as they are able to bear. This is the reason why the saints so often speak of their own weakness, when they are severely oppressed with affliction. David very properly describes the malady under which he labored, by the terms, the arrows and the hand, or the chastisement of God. Had he not been persuaded that it was God who thus afflicted him, he could never have been brought to seek from him deliverance from his affliction. We know that the great majority of men are blinded under the judgments of God, and imagine that they are entirely the events of chance; and scarcely one in a hundred discerns in them the hand of God. But, in his sickness, as in all his other adversities, David views the hand of God lifted up to punish him for his sins. And certainly, the man who estimates his affliction only by the feeling of pain which it produces, and views it in no other light, differs nothing from the beasts of the field. As every chastisement of God should remind us of his judgment, the true wisdom of the saints, as the prophet declares,
“to look to the hand of him who smiteth.”— (Isaiah 9:13)
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The pronoun thy is therefore emphatic. David’s words are, as if he had said, I have not to do with a mortal man, who can shoot his arrows with a force only in proportion to his own strength, but I have to do with God, who can discharge the arrows that come from his hand with a force altogether overwhelming.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2–6 Thy sickness, wherewith thou hast visited me.
Thy sickness, wherewith thou hast visited me.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv2–6 Psa 38:2 For thine arrows stick fast in me,…
Psa 38:2 For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.
Ver. 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me] i.e. Sicknesses of body and troubles of mind, Job 6:4 Psa 18:14. The Jewish doctors say, that he had a leprosy for six months; and that the Divine presence was taken away from him; so that he complained not without uause (R. Obadiah). But these were sagittae salutis, saith Chrysostom; arrows of salvation, love tokens from the Lord, Dens amat quos sagittat (Aug.), not unlike Jonathan’s arrows, 1Sa 20:36, and he had been forewarned of them by Nathan the prophet, 2Sa 12:9-12, and so bore them the better. Praevisa iacula minus feriunt, Darts foreseen are in a manner dintless.
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And thy hand presseth me sore] Heb. Thou lettest down thy hand upon me. Now, God’s hand is a mighty hand, 1Pe 5:6, and the weight of it is importable, but that una eademque manus, &c.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2–6 Thine arrows, i.e. thy judgments inflicted upon my outward…
Thine arrows, i.e. thy judgments inflicted upon my outward and inward man, oft compared to arrows, as Deu 32:23; Psa 7:13; 45:5; 91:5.
Presseth me sore; or, comes down upon me; as when a strong man lifts up his hand and weapon, that it may fall down with greater violence, and make the deeper wound.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–6 There is no soundness in my flesh, because of…
There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger,.... Such was the nature of the affliction the psalmist laboured under, and which he took to be an effect of the anger of God towards him, that the whole frame of nature was affected with it, and from the crown of the head to, the soles of the feet there was no health or soundness, as in Isa 1:6; where the same word is used as here; some think the word (g) here used has the signification of man; and that the sense is, that through, the violence of the distemper he had not so much, as the form of a man, as his antitype in Isa 52:14; and as this led him to a view of his sins, as the cause of his affliction, he was so far from thinking himself sound and whole, or perfect in a spiritual sense, that he saw he was all over diseased with sin, and that in his flesh dwelt no good thing;
neither is there any rest in my bones, because of my sin; or "peace" (h) there; sin breaks the believer's rest, and disturbs his peace; nor can he, in a view of it, find any rest in himself, nor in any creature, nor in any service or duty, only in Jesus Christ, his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice.
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(g) "non superest amplius ulla forma seu figura hominis", Amama; so Joseph Kimchi. (h) "non (est) pax", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Musculus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv2–5 Arrows - Thy judgments outward and inward.
Arrows - Thy judgments outward and inward.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv2–6 Verse 2. Thine arrows stick fast in me] This…
Verse 2. Thine arrows stick fast in me] This no doubt, refers to the acute pains which he endured; each appearing to his feeling as if an arrow were shot into his body.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v3 Psa 38:3-6. There is no soundness, &c. — My…
Psa 38:3-6. There is no soundness, &c. — My disease or grief hath seized upon all the parts of my body, my very bones not excepted, so that my bed can give me no rest; because of my sin — Which hath provoked thee to deal thus severely with me. For my iniquities, &c. — Or, the punishment of my iniquities, as this word is frequently used; are gone over my head — Like deep waters, wherewith I am overwhelmed. My wounds are corrupt — The bruises and sores, caused by my disease, are not only painful, but loathsome to myself and others; because of my foolishness — As a just punishment of my folly; whereby, to satisfy my unreasonable desires, I have inconsiderately offended thee, 2Sa 11:2-4. I am troubled — ינעוותי, nagnaveeti, I am distorted, or depressed; or, as it is expressed by another word, signifying the same thing, bowed down, namely, in my body, as diseased persons generally are, and withal dejected in my mind. I go mourning — Hebrew, in black; the sign of mourning, which may here be taken figuratively. When I rise out of my bed, and walk, or rather creep about in my chamber, I do it with a sad heart and a dejected countenance. Or going may be here meant of his languishing, or going toward the grave, as this same word is used sometimes.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2–6 For thine arrows stick fast in me - See…
For thine arrows stick fast in me - See the notes at Job 6:4. The word rendered “stick fast” - נחת nâchath - means properly to go or come down; to descend; and the literal idea here would be, “thine arrows come down upon me.” It is not so much the idea of their “sticking fast” when in the wound or flesh; it is that they come down upon one, and pierce him. The meaning is, that he was afflicted “as if” God had wounded him with arrows - arrows which pierced deep in his flesh. Compare the notes at Psa 45:5. The allusion is to the disease with which he was afflicted.
And thy hand presseth me sore - The same word is used here which in the former part of the verse is rendered “stick fast.” The idea is, that the hand of God had “descended” or “come down” upon him, prostrating his strength, and laying him on a bed of pain.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5 arrows . . . and thy hand--the sharp and…
arrows . . . and thy hand--the sharp and heavy afflictions he suffered (Deu 32:23).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv2–6 2. Arrows—See Job_6:4. The arrows sticking fast, are a…
2. Arrows—See Job_6:4. The arrows sticking fast, are a proof that they had entered deep into the flesh.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–6 2. God’s ‘arrows’ are His judgements in general (Psa_7:12…
2. God’s ‘arrows’ are His judgements in general (Psa_7:12 : Deu_32:23); here in particular pain and sickness (Job_6:4; Job_16:12-13; Lam_3:12-13). Blow after blow from God’s ‘hand’ (Psa_32:4; Psa_39:10) has lighted upon him. Stick fast and presseth sore are renderings of different voices of the same verb, meaning literally to come down, to light upon.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–6 (2) For thine arrows . . .—The same figure…
(2) For thine arrows . . .—The same figure is used of the disease from which Job suffered (elephantiasis? Job_6:4); of famine (Eze_5:16); and generally of divine judgments (Deu_32:23). By itself it therefore decides nothing as to the particular cause of the Psalmist’s grief.
Stick fast.—Better, have sunk into, from a root meaning to descend. Presseth, in the next clause, is from the same verb. Translate, therefore,
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For thine arrows have fallen deep into me,
And fallen upon me has thine hand.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv2–6 For thine arrows stick fast in me. (On the…
For thine arrows stick fast in me. (On the "arrows" of the Almighty, see above, Psa_7:13; and comp. Job_6:4 Psa_18:14 Psa_45:5 Psa_64:7 Psa_77:17, etc.) It has been maintained that by "God"s arrows" only sickness is meant (Hitzig); but the contrary appears from Deu_32:23-25. Hengstenberg is right, "The arrows of the Almighty denote all the chastisements of sin depending on God." And thy hand presseth me sore. The verb used is the same in both clauses; but it is difficult to express both ideas by one term in English. Dr. Kay makes the attempt by translating, "For thine arrows have sunk deep in me; yea, thine hand sank heavily on me."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv2–6 Ver. 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me.…
Ver. 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me. By this he means both bodily and spiritual griefs, but we may suppose, especially the latter, for these are most piercing and stick the fastest. God's law applied by the Spirit to the conviction of the soul of sin, wounds deeply and rankles long; it is an arrow not lightly to be brushed out by careless mirthfulness, or to be extracted by the flattering hand of self righteousness. The Lord knows how to shoot so that his bolts not only strike but stick. He can make convictions sink into the innermost spirit like arrows driven in up to the head. It seems strange that the Lord should shoot at his own beloved ones, but in truth he shoots at their sins rather than them, and those who feel his sin killing shafts in this life, shall not be slain with his hot thunderbolts in the next world. And thy hand presseth me sore. The Lord had come to close dealings with him, and pressed him down with the weight of his hand, so that he had no rest or strength left. By these two expressions we are taught that conviction of sin is a piercing and a pressing thing, sharp and sore, smarting and crushing. Those who know by experience "the terrors of the Lord, "will be best able to vouch for the accuracy of such descriptions; they are true to the life.
Ver. 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me. First, we shall see in what respect he calls them arrows: and therein, first, that they are alienae, they are shot from others, they are not in his own power; a man shoots not an arrow at himself; and then that they are veloces, swift in coming, he cannot give them their time; and again, they are vix visibiles, though they be not altogether invisible in their cunning, yet there is required a quick eye, and an express diligence and watchfulness to avoid them; so they are arrows in the hand of another, not his own; and swift as they come, and invisible before they come. And secondly, they are many arrows, the victory lies not in escaping one or two. And thirdly, they stick in him: they find not David so good proof as to rebound back again, and imprint no sense: and they stick Fast: though the blow be felt and the wound discerned, yet there is not a present cure, he cannot shake them off; infixae sunt, and then, with all this, they stick fast in him; that is, in all him; in his body and soul; in him, in his thoughts and actions; in him, in his sins and in his good works too; infixae mihi, there is no part of him, no faculty in him, in which they stick not; for (which may well be another consideration), that hand, which shot them, presses him: follows the blow, and presses him sore, that is, vehemently. But yet (which will be our conclusion), sagittae tuae, thy arrows, and manus tua, thy hand, these arrows that are shot, and this hand that presses him so sore, are the arrows, and the hand of God; and therefore, first, they must have their effect, they cannot be disappointed; but yet they bring their comfort with them, because they are his, because no arrows from him, no pressing with his hand, comes without that balsamum of mercy to heal as fast as he wounds. John Donne.
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Ver. 2. Thine arrows stick fast. Though importunity be to God most pleasing always, yet to us it is then most necessary when the cheerful face of God is turned into frowns, and when there is a justly conceived fear of the continuance of his anger: and have I not just cause to fear it, having the arrows of his anger sticking so fast in me? If he had meant to make me but a butt, at which to shoot his arrows, he would quickly, I suppose, have taken them up again; but now that he leaves them sticking in me, what can I think, but that he means to make me his quiver; and then I may look long enough before he come to pluck them out. They are arrows, indeed, that are feathered with swiftness, and headed with sharpness; and to give them a force in flying, they are shot, I may say, out of his crossbow, I am sure his bow of crosses; for no arrows can fly so fast, none pierce so deep, as the crosses and afflictions with which he hath surprised me: I may truly say surprised me, seeing when I thought myself most safe, and said, "I shall never be moved, "even then, these arrows of his anger lighted upon me, and stick so fast in my flesh, that no arm but his that shot them, is ever able to draw them forth. Oh, then, as thou hast stretched forth thine arm of anger, O God, to shoot these arrows at me, so stretch forth thine arm of mercy to draw them forth, that I may rather sing hymns than dirges unto thee; and that thou mayest show thy power, as well in pardoning as thou hast done in condemning. Sir Richard Baker.
Ver. 2. Thine arrows. Arrows are (1) swift, (2) secret, (3) sharp (4) killing instruments. They are instruments drawing blood and drinking blood, even unto drunkenness De 32:42; afflictions are like arrows in all these properties. 1. Afflictions often come very speedily, with a glance as an arrow, quick as a thought. 2. Afflictions come suddenly, unexpectedly; an arrow is upon a man afore he is aware, so are afflictions. Though Job saith, the thing he feared came upon him, he looked for this arrow before it came; yet usually afflictions are unlooked for guests, they thrust in upon us when we dream not of them. 3. They come with little noise; an arrow is felt before, or, as soon as it is heard; an arrow flies silently and secretly, stealing upon and wounding a man, unobserved and unseen. Lastly, all afflictions are sharp, and in their own nature killing and deadly. That any have good from them, is from the grace of God, not from their nature. Joseph Caryl.
Ver. 2. Let no one think these expressions of penitence Ps 38:1-4 overstrained or excessive. They are the words of the Holy Spirit of God, speaking by the mouth of the man after God's own heart. If we were as repentant as David, we should bring home to ourselves his language; as it is, our affections are chilled, and therefore we do not enter into his words...And let us observe how all the miseries are referred to their proper end. The sin is not bewailed merely on account of its ill effect on the guilty one, but on account of the despite done to God. The psalmist's first thought is the "anger" of the Lord, and his hot displeasure. It is not the "arrows" that afflict him so much as that they are God's. "Thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me." The reason why there is no health in his flesh is because of God's displeasure. Such is true contrition, "not the sorrow of the world which worketh death, but the sorrow that worketh repentance not to be repented of." A Commentary on the Seven Penitential Psalms. Chiefly from Ancient Sources, (by A.P.F.) 1847.
Ver. 2. Thy hand presseth me sore. Not the hand of Egypt or Ashur; then it were hand for hand, a duel of some equality: hand to hand; here forces and stratagems might achieve a victory: but Thy hand. The weight of a man's blow is but weak, according to the force and pulse of his arm; as the princes of Midian answered Gideon, when he bade his son try the dint of his sword upon them; "Rise thou, and fall upon us: for as the man is, so is his strength." Jud 8:21. But "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Heb 10:31. As Homer called the hands of Jupiter ceirez aeptoi, hands whose praise could not be sufficiently spoken; which some read ceires aaptoii, hands inaccessible, irresistible for strength: all the gods in heaven could not ward a blow of Jupiter's hand. This hand never strikes but for sin; and where sin is mighty his blow is heavy. Thomas Adams.
Ver. 2. God sharply chasteneth many of his children, and yet for all that he loves them never a whit the less, nor withholdeth in good time his mercy from them. Thomas Wilcocks.
Psalms 38:3*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv2–6 For Thine arrows stick fast in me, and Thy…
Psa_38:2
For Thine arrows stick fast in me, and Thy hand presseth me sore.
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Gods arrows
Those arrows commonly are either wicked men or devils, whom God sendeth forth to afflict His own children, sharp as arrows, light and swift as arrows, and ready to do harm to Gods saints; or else sickness, poverty, infamy, and such other afflictions, whereby our most gracious Father thinketh most fit to subdue our vile corruption: all which, albeit in their own nature they are evil, yet God can convert and turn them to the utility and profit of His own children. As a physician can use the most poisionable and venomous herbs to cure the most desperate diseases; yea, the flesh of the dead serpent, to cure the wound gotten by the living serpent: so God can convert and turn the mischievous machinations of our enemies to our salvation. (A. Symson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3, 5 General Information:
General Information:
David continues describing what his guilt and shame does to his body. He uses hyperbole to emphasize the effects of this lesson.
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there is no health in my bones because of my sin
Here "my bones" represents the body of the writer. AT: "my whole body is diseased because of my sin" (See: Synecdoche)
my iniquities overwhelm me
The writer's iniquities are spoken of as if they are a flood of water that covers him. AT: "my iniquities cover me like a flood" (See: Metaphor)
they are a burden too heavy for me
The writer's iniquities are spoken of as if they are a heavy load that he cannot lift. AT: "they are like a load that is too heavy for me to lift" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
body
sin
iniquity
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3–5 38:3 Sin can lead to sickness and even death…
38:3 Sin can lead to sickness and even death (1 Cor 11:30). Whether the psalmist actually felt physically ill or his sickness was a metaphor for emotional turmoil, he knew that it came from God and threatened his life (see Pss 32:3; 39:10).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.