Psalms 22:15

My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — The psalmist addresses God directly while describing a state of extreme physical exhaustion and impending death. The speaker occupies a moment of acute vulnerability, immediately following the declaration of being poured out like water and having bones disjointed.

The words — The Hebrew verb יָבֵשׁ (ya.Vesh) literally means "it has dried up," applied to the speaker's strength, while מֻדְבָּק (mud.Bak) describes the tongue as "made to cling" to the jaws. These terms concretize total physiological depletion.

The thread — The motif of a parched throat and desperate need for liquid appears in Psalms 69:3 and Psalms 69:21, and is explicitly echoed in John 19:28 when Jesus states, “I am thirsty.” These passages connect physical dehydration to the fulfillment of prophetic text.

Why it lands — The text demands recognition of human frailty and the reality of physical collapse before attributing divine action to the speaker's condition. It requires the reader to confront bodily breakdown as a factual reality rather than a metaphor.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

יָ֘בֵ֤שׁya.Veshit has dried up כַּחֶ֨רֶשׂ׀ka./Che.reslike <the>/ earthenware כֹּחִ֗יko.Ch/istrength/ my וּ֭לְשׁוֹנִיU./le.sho.n/iand/ tongue/ my מֻדְבָּ֣קmud.Bak[has been] made to cling to מַלְקוֹחָ֑יmal.ko.Cha/ijaws/ my וְֽלַעֲפַר־ve./la./'a.far-and/ to/ [the] dust of מָ֥וֶתMa.vetdeath תִּשְׁפְּתֵֽנִי׃tish.pe.Te./niyou put/ me

King James Version

My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

Cross-references

John 19:28 After this, knowing that everything had now been accomplished, and to fulfill the Scripture, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”
Psalms 69:3 I am weary from my crying; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.
Psalms 69:21 They poisoned my food with gall and gave me vinegar to quench my thirst.
Isaiah 53:12 Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.
Psalms 32:3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.
Psalms 38:10 My heart pounds, my strength fails, and even the light of my eyes has faded.
Psalms 104:29 When You hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die and return to dust.
Matthew 27:50 When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He yielded up His spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
Job 29:10 The voices of the nobles were hushed, and their tongues stuck to the roofs of their mouths.