Bible Strands
Psalms 38:8
I am numb and badly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist speaks directly to God during a period of progressive physical collapse, marking the transition from localized pain to total bodily exhaustion.
The words — The Hebrew נְפוּג֣וֹתִי (ne.fu.Go.ti) literally means "I am numb," and שָׁ֝אַ֗גְתִּי (Sha.'Ag.ti) means "I roar," both describing the psalmist's physiological and vocal reaction to suffering.
The thread — This progression from internal distress to vocalized breakdown parallels Job 3:24, where sighing replaces food, and Psalms 32:3, where unvoiced anguish causes physical deterioration.
Why it lands — The text records physical numbness and roaring as direct results of prolonged anguish, requiring the reader to treat suffering as a concrete condition that demands vocal expression before God rather than an internalized abstraction.
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 feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.
Cross-references
- Job 3:24 I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.
- Psalms 32:3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.
- Job 30:28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
- Isaiah 59:11 We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us.
- Psalms 22:1 For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Doe of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?