Bible Strands
Psalms 38:2
For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — David addresses the LORD in a psalm composed for remembrance, immediately following a plea to avoid divine rebuke in anger and discipline in wrath. He speaks during a moment of acute physical and spiritual distress that he attributes directly to God's anger and his own sin.
The words — The Hebrew term חִצֶּיךָ (chi.tzei.kha) translates to "your arrows," paired with נִחֲתוּ (ni.cha.tu), meaning "they have penetrated." The phrase יָדֶךָ (ya.de.kha) denotes "your hand," which the text states has come down upon him.
The thread — This imagery of divine arrows piercing and a heavy hand pressing down appears in Job 6:4 and Psalms 32:4, where both authors describe their spirit being poisoned and their strength drained by God's hand. Deuteronomy 2:15 also references the LORD’s hand acting to eliminate a group, establishing the motif of divine agency in judgment.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that the speaker's physical ruin is directly linked to divine action rather than mere circumstance. It requires the reader to acknowledge that suffering described as pierced and pressed is framed as intentional discipline from God.
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
For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.
Cross-references
- Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
- Psalms 32:4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was drained as in the summer heat. Selah
- Deuteronomy 2:15 Indeed, the LORD’s hand was against them, to eliminate them from the camp, until they had all perished.
- 1 Samuel 5:6 Now the hand of the LORD was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity, ravaging them and afflicting them with tumors.
- Lamentations 3:12 He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.
- Ruth 1:13 would you wait for them to grow up? Would you refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, it is much more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.”
- 1 Samuel 5:11 Then the Ekronites called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel. It must return to its place, so that it will not kill us and our people!” For a deadly confusion had pervaded the city; the hand of God was very heavy upon it.
- 1 Samuel 6:9 but keep watching it. If it goes up the road to its homeland, toward Beth-shemesh, it is the LORD who has brought on us this great disaster. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not His hand that punished us and that it happened by chance.”
- Psalms 21:12 For You will put them to flight when Your bow is trained upon them.
- Psalms 39:10 Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand.