Psalms 42:10
in Psalms 42Like the crushing of my bones, my enemies taunt me, while they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
As with a sword in my bones, mine adversaries reproach me, While they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
KJV
As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?
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This verse in Psalms 42
Commentary
10 notes on this verseThe cause of the sorrow or its effect is "while my bones are broken." The bones of the Church are the strong ones, such as prelates and perfect men. And sometimes through temporal adversaries, sometimes through temptations, they are afflicted. Ps. 22: "They have numbered …
This site's exposition
the crushing of my bones
on Psalms 42:10-11
The same question of verse 3, where is your God, now lands like the crushing of bones. The taunt has reached the body. Verse 11 brings the refrain back a second time, and the poem carries it to 43:5, where it closes.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
"They who trouble me cast me in the teeth." Again that voice! "While they say daily unto me, Where is your God?" [Psalm 42:10]. And it is principally in the temptations of the Church they say this, "Where is your God?" How much was this cast in the teeth of the Martyrs! Those men so patient and courageous for the name of Christ, how often was it said to them, "Where is your God?" "Let Him deliver you, if He can." For men saw their torments outwardly; they did not inwardly behold their crowns! "They who trouble me cast me in the teeth, while they say daily unto me, Where is your God?" And on this account, seeing "my soul is disquieted on account of myself," what else should I say unto it than those words:
It is of the greatest ignorance to think that God is in a place. God does not stand in a place. He is free.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
He had mentioned before what the reproach was that touched him thus to the quick, and here he repeats it: They say daily unto me, Where is thy God? --a reproach which was very grievous to him, both because it reflected dishonour upon God and was intended to discourage his hope in God, which he had enough to do to keep up in any measure, and which was but too apt to fail of itself.
As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me,.... The reproaches of his enemies were grievous and cutting to him, as if a sword pierced through the marrow in his bones, which, being very sensitive, gives exquisite pain.
His complaint is that his enemies oppressed and reproached him, and this made a great impression upon him. (1.) They oppressed him to such a degree that he went mourning from day to day, from place to place,
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me. Cruel mockeries cut deeper than the flesh, they reach the soul as though a rapier were introduced between the ribs to prick the heart. If reproaches kill not, yet they are killing, the pain caused is excruciating. The tongue cuts to the bone, and its wounds are hard to cure. While they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? This is the most unkind cut of all, reflecting as it does both upon the Lord's faithfulness and his servant's character.
As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me. Cruel mockeries cut deeper than the flesh, they reach the soul as though a rapier were introduced between the ribs to prick the heart. If reproaches kill not, yet they are killing, the pain caused is excruciating. The tongue cuts to the bone, and its wounds are hard to cure. While they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? This is the most unkind cut of all, reflecting as it does both upon the Lord's faithfulness and his servant's character. Such was the malice of David's foes, that having thought of the cruel question, they said it, said it daily, repeated it to him, and that for a length, of time; surely the continual yapping of these curs at his heel was enough to madden him, and perhaps would have done so had he not resorted to prayer and made the persecutions of his enemies a plea with his Lord.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
As with a sword in my bones - Margin, killing. The treatment which I receive in their reproaches is like death. The word rendered “sword” - רצח retsach - means properly killing, slaying, breaking in pieces, crushing. It occurs only here and in Eze 21:22, where it is rendered slaughter. The Septuagint renders it, “In the bruising of my bones they reproach me.” The Vulgate, “While they break my bones they reproach me.” Luther, “It is as death in my bones, that my enemies reproach me.” The idea in the Hebrew is, that their reproaches were like breaking or crushing his very bones. The idea of the “sword” is not in the original. Mine enemies reproach me - That is, as one forsaken of God, and as suffering justly under his displeasure. Their argument was, that if he was truly the friend of God, he would not leave him thus; that the fact of his being thus abandoned proved that he was not a friend of God. While they say daily unto me - They say this constantly. I am compelled to hear it every day. Where is thy God? - See the notes at Psa 42:3.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
With murder in my bones, my oppressors have reproached me It seemed to me as though they were killing me, so confined within my bones was that with which my oppressors provoke and reproach me.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בְּרֶ֤צַח׀ | beretzach | with a shattering | H7524 → | |
| בְּֽעַצְמוֹתַ֗י | beatzmotai | in bones my | H6106 → | 126 times |
| חֵרְפ֥וּנִי | cherefuni | they have taunted me | H2778 → | 41 times |
| צוֹרְרָ֑י | tzorai | opposers my | H6887 → | 54 times |
| בְּאָמְרָ֥ם | beameram | when say they | H559 → | 5305 times |
| אֵלַ֥י | ʾelai | to me | H413 → | 5510 times |
| כָּל־ | kol- | all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| הַ֝יּ֗וֹם | haiyom | the day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| אַיֵּ֥ה | ʾaiyeh | where? | H346 → | 45 times |
| אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃ | ʾeloheikha | [is] God your | H430 → | 2601 times |
בְּרֶ֤צַח׀with a shattering
beretzachH7524 →
בְּֽעַצְמוֹתַ֗יin bones my
beatzmotaiH6106 →126 times
חֵרְפ֥וּנִיthey have taunted me
cherefuniH2778 →41 times
צוֹרְרָ֑יopposers my
tzoraiH6887 →54 times
בְּאָמְרָ֥םwhen say they
beameramH559 →5305 times
אֵלַ֥יto me
ʾelaiH413 →5510 times
כָּל־all
kol-H3605 →5413 times
הַ֝יּ֗וֹםthe day
haiyomH3117 →2304 times
אַיֵּ֥הwhere?
ʾaiyehH346 →45 times
אֱלֹהֶֽיךָ׃[is] God your
ʾeloheikhaH430 →2601 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
Proverbs 12:18Speaking rashly is like a piercing sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
it leads to
- Proverbs 16:24
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
- Proverbs 15:4
A soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.
- Proverbs 10:20–21
The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked has little worth.
- Psalms 57:4
My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts— with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.
- Proverbs 16:24
Through
Psalms 42:3My tears have been my food both day and night, while men ask me all day long, “Where is your God?”
it leads to
- Psalms 79:10
Why should the nations ask, “Where is their God?” Before our eyes, make known among the nations Your vengeance for the bloodshed of Your servants.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 115:2
Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Joel 2:17
Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among…
- Psalms 79:10
Through
Joel 2:17Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 8:16
So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five…
- Ezekiel 8:16
Where this verse is studied
About Psalms
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 42; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2; Evagrius Ponticus, NOTES ON THE PSALMS 41[42].11; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.