Psalms 38:5

My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
wounds	חַבּוּרֹתָ֑י cha.bu.ro.Tai	H2250	properly · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix
stink	הִבְאִ֣ישׁוּ hiv.'I.shu	H887	to smell bad · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person common plural
corrupt	נָ֭מַקּוּ Na.ma.ku	H4743	to melt · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person common plural
because	מִ֝פְּנֵ֗י mi.pe.Nei	H6440	the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
foolishness	אִוַּלְתִּֽי 'i.val.Ti	H200	silliness · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Isaiah 1:5-6 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
Psalms 69:5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee.
Jeremiah 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
Psalms 32:3 When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
Psalms 38:7 For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Psalms 38:1-11

The title of this psalm is very observable; it is a psalm to bring to remembrance; the 70th psalm, which was likewise penned in a day of affliction, is so entitled. It is designed, 1. To bring to his own remembrance. We will suppose it penned when he was sick and in pain, and then it teaches us that times of sickness are times to bring to remembrance, to bring the sin to remembrance, for which God contended with us, to awaken our consciences to deal faithfully and plainly with us, and set our sins in order before us, for our humiliation. In a day of adversity consider. Or we may suppose it penned after his recovery, but designed as a record of the convictions he was under and the workings of…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Psalms 38:5

The loathsomeness, corruption, and wasting torture of severe physical disease set forth his mental anguish [Psa 38:6]. It is possible some bodily disease was connected. The loins are the seat of strength. His exhaustion left him only the power to groan [Psa 38:9].

John Gill on Psalms 38:5

My wounds stink, and are corrupt,.... Meaning his sins, which had wounded him, and for which there is no healing but in a wounded Saviour, and by his stripes we are healed, Isaiah 53:5; where the same word is used as here; Christ's black and blue stripes and wounds, as the word signifies, are the healing of ours, both of sins, and of the effects of them; which, to a sensible sinner, are as nauseous and loathsome as an old wound that is festered and corrupt; because of my foolishness: as all sin arises from foolishness, which is bound in the hearts of men, and from whence it arises, Mark 7:22; perhaps the psalmist may have respect to his folly with Bathsheba, which had been the occasion of a…

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John Calvin on Psalms 38:1-5

Psalm 38:1-5 1. O Jehovah! rebuke me not in thy wrath, and chasten me not in thy anger. 2. For thy arrows go down in me [49] and thy hand has come down upon me. 3. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thy anger; nor any peace in my bones because of my sin. 4. For my iniquities have passed over my head, and as a weighty burden they have become too heavy for me. 5. My wounds have become putrid, they are corrupt, because of my foolishness. 1 O Jehovah! rebuke me not in thy wrath As I have already expounded this verse in the beginning of the sixth psalm, where it occurs, and that I may not prove tedious to the reader, I shall notice it more briefly here. David does not expressly ask th…

The Church Fathers

And what does sin smell of? Concerning this the prophet says the following: "My wounds stink and fester because of my folly."
— Origen of Alexandria, DIALOGUE WITH HERACLIDES

For nothing is more filthy, nothing more impure, than sin. Wherefore the Prophet declaring its nature cried out, "My wounds stink, and are corrupt." And if thou wilt fully learn how ill-savored sin is, consider it after it hath been done; when thou art delivered from the desire, when the fire no longer troubleth thee, then shalt thou see what sin is. Consider anger, when thou art calm; consider avarice, when thou dost not feel it. There is nothing more shameful, nothing more accursed, than rapine and avarice.
— John Chrysostom, HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 52

For as the putrid humors and matter of flesh, and all those things that corrupt it, are driven out by salt, in the same manner all the irrational appetites … are banished from the body by divine teaching. For it must … be that the soul that is not sprinkled with the words of Christ, as with salt, should stink and breed worms, as King David, openly confessing with tears in the mountains, cried out, "My wounds stink and are corrupt," because he had not salted himself with the exercises of self-control and so subdued his carnal appetites, but [he] self-indulgently had yielded to them and became corrupted in adultery.
— Methodius of Olympus, BANQUET OF THE TEN VIRGINS 1:1

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Conviction · OF SIN — OF SIN
Remorse · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Psalms 38:5

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Psalms 38:1-11

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Psalms 38:5

John Gill on Psalms 38:5

John Calvin on Psalms 38:1-5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Psalms 38:5

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Psalms 38:1-11

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Psalms 38:5

John Gill on Psalms 38:5

John Calvin on Psalms 38:1-5

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on Psalms 38:1-8

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Psalms 38:5-8

Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 38:5