22:14 My strength drains away like water; 1
all my bones are dislocated;
my heart 2 is like wax;
it melts away inside me.
22:15 The roof of my mouth 3 is as dry as a piece of pottery;
my tongue sticks to my gums. 4
You 5 set me in the dust of death. 6
1 tn Heb “like water I am poured out.”
2 sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s strength and courage.
3 tc Heb “my strength” (כֹּחִי, kokhiy), but many prefer to emend the text to חִכִּי (khikiy, “my palate”; cf. NEB, NRSV “my mouth”) assuming that an error of transposition has occurred in the traditional Hebrew text.
4 tn Cf. NEB “my jaw”; NASB, NRSV “my jaws”; NIV “the roof of my mouth.”
5 sn Here the psalmist addresses God and suggests that God is ultimately responsible for what is happening because of his failure to intervene (see vv. 1-2, 11).
6 sn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to the progressive nature of the action. The psalmist is in the process of dying.