102:5 Because of the anxiety that makes me groan,
my bones protrude from my skin. 1
109:24 I am so starved my knees shake; 2
I have turned into skin and bones. 3
1 tn Heb “from the sound of my groaning my bone[s] stick to my flesh.” The preposition at the beginning of the verse is causal; the phrase “sound of my groaning” is metonymic for the anxiety that causes the groaning. The point seems to be this: Anxiety (which causes the psalmist to groan) keeps him from eating (v. 4). This physical deprivation in turn makes him emaciated – he is turned to “skin and bones,” so to speak.
2 tn Heb “my knees stagger from fasting.”
3 tn Heb “and my flesh is lean away from fatness [i.e., “lean so as not to be fat”].”