For my loins are full of inflammation, And there is no soundness in my flesh.
Parallel translations
- WEB For my waist is filled with burning. There is no soundness in my flesh.
- KJV For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.
- BSB For my loins are full of burning pain, and no soundness remains in my body.
- NASB For my sides are filled with burning, And there is no healthy part in my flesh.
- NLT A raging fever burns within me, and my health is broken.
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 body burns with feverish pain and there is no soundness in his flesh. His suffering is intense and unrelieved.
Overview
David continues describing his physical anguish, a burning in his body and no health in his flesh. The repetition of 'no soundness' (cf. v.3) underscores how thoroughly his sin and God's chastening have affected him. Such honest lament before God is itself an act of faith, bringing the whole ruin of sin to the only One who can heal, supremely through the gospel of Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Ps 102:3For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a torch.
- 2 Chr 21:18–19After all this Yahweh struck him in his bowels with an incurable disease.
- Acts 12:23Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.
- Job 7:5My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
- Ps 41:8“An evil disease”, they say, “has afflicted him. Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.”
- Job 30:18By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat.
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 38:7 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.