For our soul has sunk to the dust; our bodies cling to the earth.
Parallel translations
- WEB For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body clings to the earth.
- KJV For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
- NKJV For our soul is bowed down to the dust; Our body clings to the ground.
- NASB For our souls have sunk down into the dust; Our bodies cling to the earth.
- NLT We collapse in the dust, lying face down in the dirt.
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
Their soul is bowed to the dust and their body clings to the ground. It matters because it pictures utter humiliation and helplessness before God.
Overview
The imagery of being pressed into the dust conveys total prostration and despair. Inward soul and outward body alike are brought low. From this place of weakness the people can only look upward, casting themselves wholly upon the God who raises the lowly, supremely in the resurrection life given through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Ps 119:25My soul cleaves to the dust; revive me according to Your word.
- Isa 51:23I will place it in the hands of your tormentors, who told you: ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you,’ so that you made your back like the ground, like a street to be traversed.”
- Lam 4:5Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets; those brought up in crimson huddle in ash heaps.
- Ps 66:11–12You led us into the net; You laid burdens on our backs.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 44:25 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.