I have been sick and close to death since my youth. I stand helpless and desperate before your terrors.
Parallel translations
- WEB I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted.
- KJV I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
- BSB From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.
- NKJV I have been afflicted and ready to die from my youth; I suffer Your terrors; I am distraught.
- NASB I was miserable and about to die from my youth on; I suffer Your terrors; I grow weary.
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
He has been afflicted and near death from his youth, distraught under God's terrors. His suffering has been lifelong.
Overview
Heman reveals that his affliction is not new but has marked his entire life, leaving him overwhelmed. The depth and duration of his trial intensify the lament. Such prolonged suffering reminds believers that endurance is part of the path, and points to the One who was a man of sorrows.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 6:4For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.
- Luke 22:44Being in agony he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
- Ps 73:14For all day long I have been plagued, and punished every morning.
- Job 7:11–16“Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
- Isa 53:10Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days, and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
- Zech 13:7“Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says Yahweh of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
- Job 17:11–16My days are past, my plans are broken off, as are the thoughts of my heart.
- Isa 53:3He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.
- Job 17:1“My spirit is consumed. My days are extinct, And the grave is ready for me.
- Ps 22:14–15I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 88:15 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.