My heart is afflicted, and withered like grass; I even forget to eat my bread.
Parallel translations
- WEB My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread.
- KJV My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.
- NKJV My heart is stricken and withered like grass, So that I forget to eat my bread.
- NASB My heart has been struck like grass and has withered, Indeed, I forget to eat my bread.
- NLT My heart is sick, withered like grass, and I have lost my appetite.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
His heart is struck down and withered like grass, so that he forgets to eat. Grief has overtaken his very appetite for life.
Overview
The psalmist's inner life is crushed, withered like cut grass under the sun. So consumed is he by sorrow that he neglects basic nourishment. This honest portrait of depression and grief shows that Scripture does not hide the weight of suffering, even as it directs the sufferer to God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Isa 40:7The grass withers and the flowers fall when the breath of the LORD blows on them; indeed, the people are grass.
- Ps 37:2For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender plants.
- Matt 26:37–38He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.
- Ezra 10:6Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and walked to the chamber of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. And while he stayed there, he ate no food and drank no water, because he was mourning over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.
- Acts 9:9For three days he was without sight, and he did not eat or drink anything.
- 1 Sam 1:7–8And this went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival taunted her until she wept and would not eat.
- Ps 77:3I remembered You, O God, and I groaned; I mused and my spirit grew faint. Selah
- Lam 3:13He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.
- Job 6:4For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
- Ps 69:20Insults have broken my heart, and I am in despair. I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found no one.
- Job 10:1“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- Ps 55:4–5My heart murmurs within me, and the terrors of death assail me.
- Job 33:20so that he detests his bread, and his soul loathes his favorite food.
- 2 Sam 12:17The elders of his household stood beside him to help him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat anything with them.
- Ps 42:6O my God, my soul despairs within me. Therefore I remember You from the land of Jordan and the peaks of Hermon—even from Mount Mizar.
- Ps 143:3–4For the enemy has pursued my soul, crushing my life to the ground, making me dwell in darkness like those long since dead.
- Ps 6:2–3Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am frail; heal me, O LORD, for my bones are in agony.
- Lam 3:20Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me.
- Ps 102:11My days are like lengthening shadows, and I wither away like grass.
- Ps 102:9For I have eaten ashes like bread and mixed my drink with tears
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 102:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.