Psalms 38:4
in Psalms 38For my iniquities have overwhelmed me; they are a burden too heavy to bear.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For mine iniquities are gone over my head: As a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
KJV
For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
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This verse in Psalms 38
Commentary
14 notes on this verseFor mine iniquities are gone over mine head. Like waves of the deep sea; like black mire in which a man utterly sinks. Above my hopes, my strength, my life itself, my sin rises in its terror. Unawakened sinners think their sins to be mere shallows, but when conscience is aroused they find out the depth of iniquity. As an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. It is well when sin is an intolerable load, and when the remembrance of our sins burdens us beyond endurance.
This site's exposition
rebuke me in Your anger
on Psalms 38:1-4
The psalm opens asking that the discipline not come in anger or wrath. The arrows and the pressing hand are God's own, and the sickness in body and bones is traced to sin. The iniquities are a burden too heavy to bear.
This site's exposition
my iniquities have overwhelmed me
Adam Clarke pictured a man sinking in deep waters, the sins closing over him. Albert Barnes saw the sins heaped up like waves until they rose above the head, many in number and heavy in guilt. He compared Psalm 40:12, which dwells on their number.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers4 voices
"For mine iniquities have lifted up my head; and are like a heavy burden too heavy for me to bear" (ver. 4). Here too he has placed the cause first, and the effect afterwards. What consequence followed, and from what cause, he has told us. "Mine iniquities have lift up mine head." For no one is proud but the unrighteous man, whose head is lifted up. He is "lifted up," whose "head is lifted up on high" against God. You heard when the lesson of the Book of Ecclesiasticus was read: "The beginning of pride is when a man departeth from God." He who was the first to refuse to listen to the Commandment, "his head iniquity lifted up" against God. And because his iniquities have lifted up his head, what hath God done unto him? They are "like a heavy burden, too heavy for me to bear"! It is the part of levity to lift up the head, just as if he who lifts up his head had nothing to carry. Since therefore that which admits of being lifted up is light, it receives a weight by which it may be weighed down. For "his mischief returns upon his own head, and his violent dealing comes down upon his own pate." "They are like a heavy burden, too heavy for me to bear."
A commentator
Philoxenus of Mabbug13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 7 -- Second Discourse on the Fear of God · Written before 523.
proposed
Whosoever feareth sleepeth not, and if he sleepeth, he seeth in his dream the cause of his fear; he eateth not, and he drinketh not, and if the force of natural craving compel him, fear is mingled with his meat and drink. Everything which attacketh …
"Our head is Christ." When we do something against his precepts, our iniquities go over our head, and we are pressed as a heavy burden on us.
A commentator
Ambrose of MilanCommentaries on the Twelve Davidic Psalms · Written before 397.
proposed
(Ver. 4.) And the Holy One groaned, saying: For my iniquities have overwhelmed my head: as a heavy burden they have been laid upon me; that is, my iniquities have surpassed my head, and they tower above me, crushing my senses; for the eyes of the wise are in their head. And therefore Nabal was a wicked and stubborn man; because his senses were obstructed by malice and wickedness. Therefore he could not accept the word of Abigail; but his heart hardened, and he lay like one infirm.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Three things aggravate sins: namely, the multitude of sins, their gravity, and their repetition, because if one sins frequently, it is grave. He says therefore regarding the first, "For my iniquities have passed over my head." This is a mode of speech. By "iniquities" is …
6 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
): " My iniquities have gone over my head, as proud waters over a man that is sinking and drowning, or as a heavy burden upon my head, pressing me down more than I am able to bear or to bear up under." Note, Sin is a burden. The power of sin dwelling in us is a weight, Heb. xii.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
For mine iniquities are gone over mine head,....
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
For mine iniquities are gone over mine head. Like waves of the deep sea; like black mire in which a man utterly sinks. Above my hopes, my strength, my life itself, my sin rises in its terror. Unawakened sinners think their sins to be mere shallows, but when conscience is aroused they find out the depth of iniquity. As an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. It is well when sin is an intolerable load, and when the remembrance of our sins burdens us beyond endurance. This verse is the genuine cry of one who feels himself undone by his transgressions and as yet sees not the great sacrifice.
For mine iniquities are gone over mine head. Like waves of the deep sea; like black mire in which a man utterly sinks. Above my hopes, my strength, my life itself, my sin rises in its terror. Unawakened sinners think their sins to be mere shallows, but when conscience is aroused they find out the depth of iniquity. As an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. It is well when sin is an intolerable load, and when the remembrance of our sins burdens us beyond endurance.
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.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
For mine iniquities are gone over mine head - This is merely an enlargement of the idea suggested in the last verse - that his present sickness was to be traced to his sin, and that he was suffering the punishment for sin. The idea is here that his sins were very numerous and very aggravated. They had risen up around him, or had so accumulated that the mass rose, like waves of the sea, above his head. A somewhat similar idea - though the thought there refers rather to the number of sins than the degree of guilt - occurs in Psa 40:12: “Mine iniquities ... are more than the hairs of my head.” As an heavy burden ... - That is, they are so heavy that I cannot bear them, and my frame has sunk under them. This might mean either that the sense of sin was so great that he could not bear up under it, but had been crushed by it (compare Psa 32:3-4); or that on account of sin, “as if” it were a heavy weight, he had been crushed by disease. The general idea is, that the real cause of his sickness was the fact that he was a great sinner, and that God was punishing him for it.
The words behind it
8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּ֣י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| עֲ֭וֹנֹתַי | ʾavonotai | iniquities my | H5771 → | 233 times |
| עָבְר֣וּ | ʾaveru | they have passed over | H5674 → | 556 times |
| רֹאשִׁ֑י | roshi | head my | H7218 → | 599 times |
| כְּמַשָּׂ֥א | kemasa' | like a burden | H4853 → | |
| כָ֝בֵ֗ד | khaved | heavy | H3515 → | |
| יִכְבְּד֥וּ | yikhbedu | they are [too] heavy | H3513 → | 113 times |
| מִמֶּֽנִּי׃ | mimeni | for me | H4480 → | 1188 times |
כִּ֣יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
עֲ֭וֹנֹתַיiniquities my
ʾavonotaiH5771 →233 times
עָבְר֣וּthey have passed over
ʾaveruH5674 →556 times
רֹאשִׁ֑יhead my
roshiH7218 →599 times
כְּמַשָּׂ֥אlike a burden
kemasa'H4853 →
כָ֝בֵ֗דheavy
khavedH3515 →
יִכְבְּד֥וּthey are [too] heavy
yikhbeduH3513 →113 times
מִמֶּֽנִּי׃for me
mimeniH4480 →1188 times
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
Matthew 11:28Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
it leads to
- Matthew 11:29
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
- John 7:37
On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
- John 6:37
Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never drive away.
- Galatians 5:1
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery.
- Isaiah 55:1–3
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost!
- Matthew 11:29
Through
1 Peter 2:24He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. “By His stripes you are healed.”
it leads to
- Isaiah 53:4–6
Surely He took on our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken by God, struck down and afflicted.
- Matthew 8:17
This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took on our infirmities and carried our diseases.”
- Romans 6:11
So you too must count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
- Isaiah 53:4–6
About Psalms
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, Commentaries on the Twelve Davidic Psalms; Arnobius the Younger, COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 38; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 38; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Philoxenus of Mabbug, 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 7 -- Second Discourse on the Fear of God and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.