Because of my groaning, I am reduced to skin and bones.
Parallel translations
- WEB By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.
- KJV By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.
- BSB Through my loud groaning my flesh clings to my bones.
- NKJV Because of the sound of my groaning My bones cling to my skin.
- NASB Because of the loudness of my groaning My bones cling to my flesh.
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 groaning is so constant that his bones cling to his skin. Prolonged anguish has wasted his body away.
Overview
Ceaseless groaning and lack of food have left the psalmist emaciated, skin clinging to bone. The physical toll of grief is laid bare before God. Such candor models bringing the whole of our suffering, body and soul, into honest prayer.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Job 19:20My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
- Prov 17:22A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
- Lam 4:8Their appearance is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: Their skin clings to their bones; it is withered, it has become like a stick.
- Ps 6:8Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping.
- Ps 32:3–4When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
- Ps 38:8–10I am faint and severely bruised. I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart.
- Ps 6:6I am weary with my groaning. Every night I flood my bed. I drench my couch with my tears.
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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 102:5 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.