I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
Parallel translations
- WEB I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.
- BSB I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.
- NKJV I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me.
- NASB I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me.
- NLT My life is poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, melting within me.
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
He feels poured out like water, his bones out of joint and his heart melted like wax. His physical and emotional strength utterly fails.
Overview
The sufferer describes a body and spirit drained to the point of collapse, dissolving, dislocated, melting. The language remarkably evokes the physical agony of crucifixion, with its dislocated joints and failing heart. Christians have long seen here a detailed prophetic glimpse of Christ's bodily suffering on the cross.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 22:17I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
- Job 30:16And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.
- Ps 31:10For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.
- Dan 5:6Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.
- Job 23:16For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me:
- Josh 7:5And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.
- Luke 22:44And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
- Mark 14:33–34And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;
- John 12:27Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
- Nah 2:10She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.
- Ps 68:2As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
- Matt 26:38Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
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 22:14 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.