My knees are weak through fasting. My body is thin and lacks fat.
Parallel translations
- KJV My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.
- BSB My knees are weak from fasting, and my body grows lean and gaunt.
- ESV My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt, with no fat.
- NKJV My knees are weak through fasting, And my flesh is feeble from lack of fatness.
- NASB My knees are weak from fasting, And my flesh has grown lean, without fatness.
- NLT My knees are weak from fasting, and I am skin and bones.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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
David's body is weakened by fasting, his frame thin and gaunt. His physical state reflects the depth of his prayerful distress.
Overview
Fasting accompanied earnest, humble prayer in Israel, and here it has left David physically depleted. The verse shows the wholehearted seriousness with which he sought God amid persecution. It models bringing one's whole self, body included, before the Lord, depending entirely on His help.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Heb 12:12Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees,
- Matt 4:2When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.
- Ps 32:3–4When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
- Ps 22:14I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.
- Ps 102:4–5My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread.
- 2 Cor 11:27in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.
- Ps 69:10When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach.
- Ps 35:13–14But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting. My prayer returned into my own bosom.
- Job 19:20My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh. I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.
- Ps 38:5–8My wounds are loathsome and corrupt, because of my foolishness.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 109:24 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.