Discovery BoxPsalms 39:3 
Context39:3 my anxiety intensified. 1
As I thought about it, I became impatient. 2
Finally I spoke these words: 3
Psalms 102:5
Context102:5 Because of the anxiety that makes me groan,
my bones protrude from my skin. 4
Psalms 38:8
Context38:8 I am numb with pain and severely battered; 5
I groan loudly because of the anxiety I feel. 6
1 tn Heb “my heart was hot within me.”
2 tn Heb “In my reflection fire burned.” The prefixed verbal form is either a preterite (past tense) or an imperfect being used in a past progressive or customary sense (“fire was burning”).
3 tn Heb “I spoke with my tongue.” The phrase “these words” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
4 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.
5 tn Heb “I am numb and crushed to excess.”
6 tn Heb “I roar because of the moaning of my heart.”
