My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
Parallel translations
- WEB My wounds are loathsome and corrupt, because of my foolishness.
- BSB My wounds are foul and festering because of my sinful folly.
- NKJV My wounds are foul and festering Because of my foolishness.
- NASB My wounds grow foul and fester Because of my foolishness.
- NLT My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins.
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 wounds fester and stink because of his foolishness. He traces his misery to his own sinful folly.
Overview
In graphic terms David describes festering, loathsome wounds resulting from 'my foolishness,' his sinful folly. He takes full responsibility rather than blaming others. Such candid self-judgment is the soil of true repentance, and it magnifies the grace of the gospel that cleanses even the most corrupt wounds of sin through the cleansing blood of Christ (1 John 1:7-9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Isa 1:5–6Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
- Ps 69:5O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.
- Jer 8:22Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
- Ps 38:7For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.
- Ps 32:3When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
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 38:5 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
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