Psalms 38:7

For my loins are full of burning pain, and no soundness remains in my body.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — The psalmist addresses God while trapped in a cycle of daily mourning and physical collapse, positioned between descriptions of being bent low and groaning in anguish. This moment captures the immediate bodily cause of his prolonged despair.

The words — The Hebrew כְסָלַי (khe.sala/i) means "my loins," and נִקְלֶה (nik.leh) denotes a state of "burning" or intense inflammation. Combined with מָלְאֻוּ (mal.u), the phrase literally declares that the loins are "full of burning pain."

The thread — This pattern of internal burning and physical ruin appears in the incurable bowels of Jehoram at 2 Chronicles 21:18, the bones burning like embers at Psalms 102:3, and the festering skin at Job 7:5. Each passage tracks affliction that consumes the body from within.

Why it lands — The verse states plainly that prolonged suffering leaves no soundness in the flesh, demanding acknowledgment of embodied despair. It asks the reader to face physical ruin without spiritualizing or softening the reality of the pain.

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

כִּֽי־ki-for כְ֭סָלַיKhe.sa.la/iloins/ my מָלְא֣וּmal.'Uthey are full נִקְלֶ֑הnik.Lehburning [pain]וְאֵ֥יןve./'Einand/ there not מְ֝תֹ֗םme.Tom[is] soundness בִּבְשָׂרִֽי׃bi/v.sa.R/iin/ flesh/ my

King James Version

For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.

Cross-references

2 Chronicles 21:18 After all this, the LORD afflicted Jehoram with an incurable disease of the bowels.
Psalms 102:3 For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like glowing embers.
Job 7:5 My flesh is clothed with worms and encrusted with dirt; my skin is cracked and festering.
Job 30:18 With great force He grasps my garment; He seizes me by the collar of my tunic.
Psalms 41:8 “A vile disease has been poured into him; he will never get up from where he lies!”
Acts 12:23 Immediately, because Herod did not give glory to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.