Bible Strands
Psalms 38:11
My beloved and friends shun my disease, and my kinsmen stand at a distance.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God while enduring severe physical decline. The moment follows a description of fading strength and vision, immediately preceding a report of enemies plotting deceit.
The words — אֹֽהֲבַ֨/י ('o.ha.Va/i) and וְ/רֵעַ֗/י (ve./re.'A/i) literally translate as "my beloveds/friends" and "my companions." The text states these close relations actively shun the psalmist's plague, emphasizing deliberate social withdrawal.
The thread — The motif of relational abandonment during crisis appears in Psalms 31:11, Job 19:13, and Luke 23:49. Each passage records how proximity turns to distance when suffering or execution becomes immediate.
Why it lands — The text reports that physical or spiritual distress severs expected social bonds. The reader must acknowledge abandonment as a factual condition of suffering rather than interpreting it as divine rejection or personal failure.
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
King James Version
My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.
Cross-references
- Psalms 31:11 Among all my enemies I am a disgrace, and among my neighbors even more. I am dreaded by my friends—they flee when they see me on the street.
- Luke 23:49 But all those who knew Jesus, including the women who had followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things.
- Job 19:13 He has removed my brothers from me; my acquaintances have abandoned me.
- Psalms 88:18 You have removed my beloved and my friend; darkness is my closest companion.
- Luke 10:31 Now by chance a priest was going down the same road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
- Luke 22:54 Then they seized Jesus, led Him away, and took Him into the house of the high priest. And Peter followed at a distance.
- John 16:32 “Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
- Job 6:21 For now you are of no help; you see terror, and you are afraid.
- Matthew 26:56 But this has all happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted Him and fled.
- Isaiah 53:4 Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.