Psa 38:2-20 | Clarke | e4.org | 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.

‏ Psalms 38:2-20

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.

Verse 3. No soundness in my flesh] This seems to refer to some disorder which so affected the muscles as to produce sores and ulcers; and so affected his bones as to leave him no peace nor rest. In short, he was completely and thoroughly diseased; and all this he attributes to his sin, either as being its natural consequence, or as being inflicted by the Lord as a punishment on its account.

Verse 4. Mine iniquities are gone over mine head] He represents himself as one sinking in deep waters, or as one oppressed by a burden to which his strength was unequal.

Verse 5. My wounds stink and are corrupt] Taking this in connection with the rest of the Psalm, I do not see that we can understand the word in any figurative or metaphorical way. I believe they refer to some disease with which he was at this time afflicted; but whether the leprosy, the small pox, or some other disorder that had attacked the whole system, and showed its virulence on different parts of the outer surface, cannot be absolutely determined.

Because of my foolishness.] This may either signify sin as the cause of his present affliction, or it may import an affliction which was the consequence of that foolish levity which prefers the momentary gratification of an irregular passion to health of body and peace of mind.

Verse 6. I am troubled] In mind. I am bowed down-in body. I am altogether afflicted, and full of distress.

Verse 7. For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease] Or rather, a burning; nikleh, from kalah, to fry, scorch, &c., hence nikleh, a burning, or strongly feverish disease.

There is no soundness in my flesh.] All without and all within bears evidence that the whole of my solids and fluids are corrupt.

Verse 8. I am feeble and sore broken] I am so exhausted with my disease that I feel as if on the brink of the grave, and unfit to appear before God; therefore "have I roared for the disquietness of my heart."

That David describes a natural disease here cannot reasonably be doubted; but what that disease was, who shall attempt to say? However, this is evident, that whatever it was, he most deeply deplored the cause of it; and as he worthily lamented it, so he found mercy at the hand of God. It would be easy to show a disease of which what he here enumerates are the very general symptoms; but I forbear, because in this I might attribute to one what, perhaps, in Judea would be more especially descriptive of another.

Verse 9. Lord, all my desire is before thee] I long for nothing so much as thy favour; and for this my heart is continually going out after thee. Instead of Adonai, Lord, several of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. have Yehovah.

Verse 10. My heart panteth] secharchar, flutters, palpitates, through fear and alarm.

My strength faileth] Not being able to take nourishment.

The light of mine eyes-is gone] I can scarcely discern any thing through the general decay of my health and vigour, particularly affecting my sight.

Verse 11. My lovers] Those who professed much affection for me; my friends, reai, my companions, who never before left my company, stand aloof.

My kinsmen] kerobai, my neighbours, stand afar off. I am deserted by all, and they stand off because of nigi, my plague. They considered me as suffering under a Divine judgment; and, thinking me an accursed being, they avoided me lest they should be infected by my disease.

Verse 12. They also that seek after my life] They act towards me as huntsmen after their prey; they lay snares to take away my life. Perhaps this means only that they wished for his death, and would have been glad to have had it in their power to end his days. Others spoke all manner of evil of him, and told falsities against him all the day long.

Verse 13. But I, as a deaf man] I was conscious of my guilt, I could not vindicate myself; and I was obliged in silence to bear their insults.

Verse 14. No reproofs.] tochachoth, arguments or vindications; a forensic term. I was as a man accused in open court, and I could make no defence.

Verse 15. In thee, O Lord, do I hope] I have no helper but thee.

Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.] Thou art eternal in thy compassions, and wilt hear the prayer of a penitent soul. In the printed copies of the Hebrew text we have Adonai Elohai, Lord my God; but, instead of Adonai, one hundred and two of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. read Yehovah. As this word is never pronounced by the Jews, and they consider it dreadfully sacred, in reading, wherever it occurs, they pronounce Adonai; and we may well suppose that Jewish scribes, in writing out copies of the sacred Scriptures, would as naturally write Adonai for Yehovah, as they would in reading supply the former for the latter.

Verse 16. When my foot slippeth] They watched for my halting; and when my foot slipped, they rejoiced that I had fallen into sin!

Verse 17. For I am ready to halt] Literally, I am prepared to halt. So completely infirm is my soul, that it is impossible for me to take one right step in the way of righteousness, unless strengthened by thee.

Verse 18. I will declare mine iniquity] I will confess it with the deepest humiliation and self-abasement.

Verse 19. But mine enemies are lively] Instead of chaiyim, lively, I would read chinam, without cause; a change made by the half of one letter, nun for a yod. See the parallel places, Ps 35:19; 79:5. See also the Preliminary Dissertation to Dr. Lowth's Isaiah, p. 40: "But without cause my enemies have strengthened themselves; and they who wrongfully hate me are multiplied." Here the one member of the verse answers to the other.

Verse 20. Because l follow the thing that good is.] The translation is as bad as the sentence is awkward. tachath rodpi tob, because I follow goodness. There is a remarkable addition to this verse in the Arabic: "They have rejected me, the beloved one, as an abominable dead carcass; they have pierced my body with nails." I suppose the Arabic translator meant to refer this to Christ.

None of the other Versions have any thing like this addition; only the AEthiopic adds, "They rejected their brethren as an unclean carcass." St. Ambrose says this reading was found in some Greek and Latin copies in his time; and Theodoret has nearly the same reading with the Arabic: καιαπερριψανμετοναγαπητονως νεκρονεβδελυγμενον "And they cast me, the beloved, out, as an abominable dead carcass." Whence this reading came I cannot conjecture.