Psalms 38:5
in Psalms 38My wounds are foul and festering because of my sinful folly.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
My wounds are loathsome and corrupt, Because of my foolishness.
KJV
My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
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This verse in Psalms 38
Commentary
4 notes on this verse(Verse 5.) Therefore, rightly placed under iniquities, and (what is worse) his own, he says that his scars have become corrupted and decayed from the face of his foolishness; because the remedy for lifting the burden of iniquities followed slowly. However, even Job, who with a holy razor shaved the pus from his sores, was deprived of health; and Lazarus, a poor man who lay at the rich man's gate, with dogs licking his wounds, was lifted from the stench of his scars and placed in Abraham's bosom by angels.
This site's exposition
foul and festering
on Psalms 38:5-8
The wounds are foul and festering, and the cause given is his own sinful folly. Gill notes the word behind the pain in the loins carries the sense of burning. He is bent, brought low, and mourning all day long.
The record, by era
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness. Apply this to the body, and it pictures a sad condition of disease; but read it of the soul, and it is to the life. Conscience lays on stripe after stripe till the swelling becomes a wound and suppurates, and the corruption within grows offensive. What a horrible creature man appears to be in his own consciousness when his depravity and vileness are fully opened up by the law of God, applied by the Holy Spirit!
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
on Psalms 38:5-8
The loathsomeness, corruption, and wasting torture of severe physical disease set forth his mental anguish [Ps 38:6]. It is possible some bodily disease was connected. The loins are the seat of strength.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הִבְאִ֣ישׁוּ | hivishu | they stink | H887 → | |
| נָ֭מַקּוּ | namaku | they fester | H4743 → | |
| חַבּוּרֹתָ֑י | chaburotai | wounds my | H2250 → | |
| מִ֝פְּנֵ֗י | mipenei | <from> because of | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| אִוַּלְתִּֽי׃ | ʾivalti | folly my | H200 → |
הִבְאִ֣ישׁוּthey stink
hivishuH887 →
נָ֭מַקּוּthey fester
namakuH4743 →
חַבּוּרֹתָ֑יwounds my
chaburotaiH2250 →
מִ֝פְּנֵ֗י<from> because of
mipeneiH6440 →2123 times
אִוַּלְתִּֽי׃folly my
ʾivaltiH200 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 32:3When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.
it leads to
- Proverbs 28:13
He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
- Psalms 38:8
I am numb and badly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart.
- Psalms 38:3
There is no soundness in my body because of Your anger; there is no rest in my bones because of my sin.
- Proverbs 28:13
Through
Jeremiah 8:22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?
it leads to
- Jeremiah 46:11
Go up to Gilead for balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt! In vain you try many remedies, but for you there is no healing.
- Genesis 37:25
And as they sat down to eat a meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh on their way down to…
- Jeremiah 51:8
Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been shattered. Wail for her; get her balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.
- Jeremiah 30:12–17
For this is what the LORD says: “Your injury is incurable; your wound is grievous.
- Luke 8:43
including a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She had spent all her money on physicians, but no one was able to heal her.
- Jeremiah 46:11
About Psalms
This page draws on Ambrose of Milan, Commentaries on the Twelve Davidic Psalms; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.