Discovery BoxPsalms 38:2 
Context38:2 For your arrows pierce 1 me,
and your hand presses me down. 2
Psalms 38:8-10
Context38:8 I am numb with pain and severely battered; 3
I groan loudly because of the anxiety I feel. 4
38:9 O Lord, you understand my heart’s desire; 5
my groaning is not hidden from you.
38:10 My heart beats quickly;
my strength leaves me;
I can hardly see. 6
1 tn The verb Hebrew נָחַת (nakhat) apparently here means “penetrate, pierce” (note the use of the Qal in Prov 17:10). The psalmist pictures the
2 tn Heb “and your hand [?] upon me.” The meaning of the verb נָחַת (nakhat) is unclear in this context. It is preferable to emend the form to וַתָּנַח (vattanakh) from the verb נוּחַ (nuakh, “rest”). In this case the text would read literally, “and your hand rests upon me” (see Isa 25:10, though the phrase is used in a positive sense there, unlike Ps 38:2).
3 tn Heb “I am numb and crushed to excess.”
4 tn Heb “I roar because of the moaning of my heart.”
5 tn Heb “O Lord, before you [is] all my desire.”
6 tn Heb “and the light of my eyes, even they, there is not with me.” The “light of the eyes” may refer to physical energy (see 1 Sam 14:27, 29), life itself (Ps 13:3), or the ability to see (Prov 29:23).
