My beloved and friends shun my disease, and my kinsmen stand at a distance.
Parallel translations
- WEB My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away.
- KJV My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.
- NKJV My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague, And my relatives stand afar off.
- NASB My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague; And my kinsmen stand far away.
- NLT My loved ones and friends stay away, fearing my disease. Even my own family stands at a distance.
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 friends and relatives keep their distance in his affliction, leaving him isolated. Suffering can compound loneliness when those nearest withdraw.
Overview
In this penitential psalm, David's sickness and sin have made him an outcast even to those who should support him. The abandonment deepens his sense of being under God's hand. It foreshadows the greater Sufferer, Christ, whom His friends forsook in His hour of trial (Matthew 26:56).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 31:11Among all my enemies I am a disgrace, and among my neighbors even more. I am dreaded by my friends—they flee when they see me on the street.
- Luke 23:49But all those who knew Jesus, including the women who had followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things.
- Job 19:13–17He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.
- Luke 10:31–32Now by chance a priest was going down the same road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
- Luke 22:54Then they seized Jesus, led Him away, and took Him into the house of the high priest. And Peter followed at a distance.
- Ps 88:18You have removed my beloved and my friend; darkness is my closest companion.
- John 16:32“Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
- Job 6:21–23For now you are of no help; you see terror, and you are afraid.
- Matt 26:56But this has all happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted Him and fled.
- Isa 53:4Surely He took on our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken by God, struck down and afflicted.
- Isa 53:8By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and who can recount His descendants? For He was cut off from the land of the living; He was stricken for the transgression of My people.
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 38:11 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.