Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Pere:

You need to look at the context. For example, starting with verse 4 we read:
There is no perfection in my flesh because of your execration, there is no
fullness in my bones because of my error.

Verse 5: For my perversions cross over my head, as a heavy weight, they
weigh more than I.

Verse 6: My stripes cause to stink, they rot, because of my folly.

Verse 7: I am twisted up, brought down very much, I walk gloomily all the
day.

And so on.

>From the context, we see that the psalmist is speaking figuratively and
spiritually, not physically. Yet recognizing that the spiritual pain can be
as painful as physical pain and have physical outworking.

I am puzzled by your difficulty in understanding the verse.

As for modern man having the depth to understand this verse, I am out of
touch with modernity, and I hope some of that rubbed off on my sons as well
(we don’t even have a TV in the house, let alone watch it). But I’m not that
far out of touch, as I sit here with an iPod listening to Händel’s Messiah.
That Lutheran music really resonates with me.

I guess it has rubbed off some, as my son is in the next room repairing
speakers for church, and testing them with music by Bach.

Karl W. Randolph.

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 9:36 PM, Pere Porta <pporta7 AT gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi, list.
>
> I'm struggling with Ps 38:6.
> Among others, I read these translations of the verse:
>
> --My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins.
> --My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness
> --My wounds stink *and *are corrupt because of my foolishness.
> (This last one is KJV)
>
> Does this make any sense for us, readers of century XXI?
>
> Is someone on this list able to compose an understandable translation of
> this verse?
>
> Pere Porta
> (Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain)
>