1 Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your wrath, neither chasten me in your hot displeasure.
2 For your arrows have pierced me, your hand presses hard on me.
3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation, neither is there any health in my bones because of my sin.
4 For my iniquities have gone over my head. As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
5 My wounds are loathsome and corrupt, because of my foolishness.
6 I am pained and bowed down greatly. I go mourning all day long.
7 For my waist is filled with burning. There is no soundness in my flesh.
8 I am faint and severely bruised. I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart.
9 Lord, all my desire is before you. My groaning is not hidden from you.
10 My heart throbs. My strength fails me. As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me.
11 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away.
12 They also who seek after my life lay snares. Those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and meditate deceits all day long.
13 But I, as a deaf man, don’t hear. I am as a mute man who doesn’t open his mouth.
14 Yes, I am as a man who doesn’t hear, in whose mouth are no reproofs.
15 For in you, Yahweh, do I hope. You will answer, Lord my God.
16 For I said, “Don’t let them gloat over me, or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips.”
17 For I am ready to fall. My pain is continually before me.
18 For I will declare my iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin.
19 But my enemies are vigorous and many. Those who hate me without reason are numerous.
20 They who also render evil for good are adversaries to me, because I follow what is good.
21 Don’t forsake me, Yahweh. My God, don’t be far from me.
22 Hurry to help me, Lord, my salvation.
Study Psalm 38
Read the complete chapter before isolating one sentence, and note the reference and edition beside anything you quote. Then take a focused next step: a passage-note method or a memory practice method .
Edition and source notes
This is the World English Bible, a public-domain translation, in its own numbering: 22 verses of Psalm 38, with punctuation and line breaks as published. Source notes are labelled separately; the publisher’s headings and cross references are not part of the text. WEB edition notes.
Read Psalm 38 in the King James Version or the Berean Standard Bible .
Open Psalm 38 in the study app to take notes, make review cards or map the passage; it requires an account.