My life is poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, melting within me.
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.
- KJV 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.
- 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.
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 can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me.
- Job 30:16“Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold on me.
- Ps 31:10For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away.
- Dan 5:6Then the king’s face was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his thighs were loosened, and his knees struck one against another.
- Job 23:16For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me.
- Josh 7:5The men of Ai struck about thirty-six men of them, and they chased them from before the gate even to Shebarim, and struck them at the descent. The hearts of the people melted, and became like water.
- Luke 22:44Being in agony he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
- Mark 14:33–34He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly troubled and distressed.
- John 12:27“Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this time?’ But for this cause I came to this time.
- Nah 2:10She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.
- Ps 68:2As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
- Matt 26:38Then he said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch with me.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 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.