Bible Strands
Psalms 38:6
I am bent and brought low; all day long I go about mourning.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God during acute physical decay and spiritual conviction, positioning this declaration between the description of festering wounds and the report of total bodily breakdown.
The words — נַעֲוֵ֣יתִי (na'aveiti) means "I am bent down" and שַׁחֹ֣תִי (shaḥati) means "I am bent over," both verbs describing a posture of extreme physical and emotional collapse.
The thread — This pattern of bowed grief and daily mourning runs through Job 30:28, Psalms 35:14, and Psalms 42:9, where other lamenters describe walking in sorrow or standing heavy with affliction.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to name prolonged suffering without euphemism, demanding that unvarnished physical and emotional reality be brought directly to 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
I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the day long.
Cross-references
- Job 30:28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
- Psalms 35:14 I paced about as for my friend or brother; I was bowed down with grief, like one mourning for his mother.
- Psalms 42:9 I say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why must I walk in sorrow because of the enemy’s oppression?”
- Psalms 31:10 For my life is consumed with grief and my years with groaning; my iniquity has drained my strength, and my bones are wasting away.
- Psalms 42:5 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why the unease within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him for the salvation of His presence.
- Psalms 43:2 For You are the God of my refuge. Why have You rejected me? Why must I walk in sorrow because of the enemy’s oppression?
- Psalms 145:14 The LORD upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.
- Psalms 6:6 I am weary from groaning; all night I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.
- Psalms 57:6 They spread a net for my feet; my soul was despondent. They dug a pit before me, but they themselves have fallen into it! Selah
- Psalms 88:9 My eyes grow dim with grief. I call to You daily, O LORD; I spread out my hands to You.