For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was drained as in the summer heat. Selah
Parallel translations
- WEB For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.
- KJV For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
- NKJV For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah
- NASB For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality failed as with the dry heat of summer. Selah
- NLT Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat. Interlude
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
Day and night God's hand was heavy on David, draining his strength like summer heat. It portrays God's convicting discipline on the unrepentant.
Overview
God's heavy hand represents the conviction and chastening that pressed on David while he refused to confess. This pressure was God's grace, designed to drive him to repentance. The 'Selah' invites pause to consider how God lovingly disturbs our peace to lead us to forgiveness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- 1 Sam 5:11Then the Ekronites assembled all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel. It must return to its place, so that it will not kill us and our people!” For a deadly confusion had pervaded the city; the hand of God was heavy upon it.
- Ps 38:2–8For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.
- Ps 39:10–11Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand.
- Job 33:7Surely no fear of me should terrify you; nor will my hand be heavy upon you.
- Ps 22:15My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death.
- Ps 102:3–4For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers.
- Ps 90:6–7in the morning it springs up new, but by evening it fades and withers.
- Job 16:21Oh, that a man might plead with God as he pleads with his neighbor!
- 1 Sam 5:6–7Now the hand of the LORD was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity, ravaging them and afflicting them with tumors.
- Lam 4:8But now their appearance is blacker than soot; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick.
- Lam 5:10Our skin is as hot as an oven with fever from our hunger.
- Job 30:30My skin grows black and peels, and my bones burn with fever.
- 1 Sam 6:9but keep watching it. If it goes up the road to its homeland, toward Beth-shemesh, it is the LORD who has brought on us this great disaster. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not His hand that punished us and that it happened by chance.”
- 1 Sam 5:9But after they had moved the ark to Gath, the LORD’s hand was also against that city, throwing it into great confusion and afflicting the men of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors.
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 32:4 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.