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38. Psalm 38

¹ LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger
   or discipline me in your wrath.
² Your arrows have pierced me,
   and your hand has come down on me.
³ Because of your wrath there is no health in my body;
   there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin.
⁴ My guilt has overwhelmed me
   like a burden too heavy to bear.

    ⁵ My wounds fester and are loathsome
   because of my sinful folly.
⁶ I am bowed down and brought very low;
   all day long I go about mourning.
⁷ My back is filled with searing pain;
   there is no health in my body.
⁸ I am feeble and utterly crushed;
   I groan in anguish of heart.

    ⁹ All my longings lie open before you, Lord;
   my sighing is not hidden from you.
¹⁰ My heart pounds, my strength fails me;
   even the light has gone from my eyes.
¹¹ My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds;
   my neighbors stay far away.
¹² Those who want to kill me set their traps,
   those who would harm me talk of my ruin;
   all day long they scheme and lie.

    ¹³ I am like the deaf, who cannot hear,
   like the mute, who cannot speak;
¹⁴ I have become like one who does not hear,
   whose mouth can offer no reply.
¹⁵ LORD, I wait for you;
   you will answer, Lord my God.
¹⁶ For I said, “Do not let them gloat
   or exalt themselves over me when my feet slip.”

    ¹⁷ For I am about to fall,
   and my pain is ever with me.
¹⁸ I confess my iniquity;
   I am troubled by my sin.
¹⁹ Many have become my enemies without cause One Dead Sea Scrolls manuscript; Masoretic Text my vigorous enemies;
   those who hate me without reason are numerous.
²⁰ Those who repay my good with evil
   lodge accusations against me,
   though I seek only to do what is good.

    ²¹ LORD, do not forsake me;
   do not be far from me, my God.
²² Come quickly to help me,
   my Lord and my Savior.

This living, ⁵⁸⁵⁸ Ainsworth reads, “are alive, or living;” “that is,” says he, “lively, lusty, cheerful, hale, and sound, or rich, as the word seemeth to mean in Ecclesiastes 6:8.” Dr Lowth, instead of חיים, chayim, living, proposes to read here חאנם, chinam, without cause — without cause have strengthened themselves. “I think,” says he, “חינם, here for חיים, is a remarkable instance of a reading merely conjectural, unsupported by any authority but that of the context, of the truth of which, no possible doubt can be made. Hare and Houbigant, and I suppose every other competent reader, has hit upon it. You see the two hemistichs are parallel and synonymous, word answering to word.” — Dr Lowth in Mr Merrick’s Note on this place. — Street and Dr Adam Clarke agree in this alteration. which he attributes to his enemies, implies as much as to enjoy continued and abundant prosperity in all things; and therefore he adds, that they are become strong and increase in power I interpret the word רבב, rabbab, in this place, increase in power, because he would speak improperly were he to be understood as saying, that they were multiplied. He does not here complain that they increased in number, but rather exalts their greatness, because the more they acquired of riches, they acquired so much the greater audacity in oppressing the good and the simple. He tells us that he is assailed by them wrongfully, and without cause, that he may induce God to be the more favorable and propitious to him. And surely, if we would have the favor of God for our defense, we must always take care not to injure any man, and to do nothing to provoke the hatred of any against us.