Psalm 38
The full text of Psalm 38 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
A psalm of David, for the memorial offering.
1 O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath!
2 For your arrows have sunk into me,
and your hand has come down on me.
3 There is no soundness in my flesh
because of your indignation;
there is no health in my bones
because of my sin.
4 For my iniquities have gone over my head;
like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
5 My wounds stink and fester
because of my foolishness.
6 I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;
all the day I go about mourning.
7 For my sides are filled with burning,
and there is no soundness in my flesh.
8 I am feeble and crushed;
I groan because of the tumult of my heart.
9 O Lord, all my longing is before you;
my sighing is not hidden from you.
10 My heart throbs; my strength fails me,
and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.
11 My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague,
and my nearest kin stand far off.
12 Those who seek my life lay their snares;
those who seek my hurt speak of ruin
and meditate treachery all day long.
13 But I am like a deaf man; I do not hear,
like a mute man who does not open his mouth.
14 I have become like a man who does not hear,
and in whose mouth are no rebukes.
15 But for you, O LORD, do I wait;
it is you, O LORD my God, who will answer.
16 For I said, 'Only let them not rejoice over me,
who boast against me when my foot slips!'
17 For I am ready to fall,
and my pain is ever before me.
18 I confess my iniquity;
I am sorry for my sin.
19 But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty,
and many are those who hate me wrongfully.
20 Those who render me evil for good
accuse me because I follow after good.
21 Do not forsake me, O LORD!
O my God, be not far from me!
22 Make haste to help me,
O Lord, my salvation!
Translation notes (4)
- Psalm 38:5a The Hebrew 'ivvelet (אִוֶּלֶת), 'foolishness', denotes moral culpability rather than mere ignorance or error; in wisdom literature the fool is one who rejects instruction and sins willfully. The psalmist thus traces his festering wounds not to misfortune but to his own guilt, continuing the confession of iniquity in the preceding verse.
- Psalm 38:11a Hebrew nega', 'plague', is the term Leviticus 13 uses for the skin afflictions that required a sufferer to live apart from the community. The psalmist's friends thus keep the distance prescribed for the ritually unclean, adding social abandonment to physical pain, a pattern echoed in the isolation of Job (Job 19:13-19).
- Psalm 38:13a Hebrew cheresh, 'deaf', and illem, 'mute', form a deliberate simile: the psalmist is not impaired but chooses silence before his accusers. Refusing to answer slander, he leaves his defense to God, as verse 15 makes explicit. The image recurs of the suffering servant who does not open his mouth in Isaiah 53:7.
- Psalm 38:20a The verb rendered here as 'accuse' is satan (שָׂטַן), 'to oppose as an adversary', the root from which the noun satan, 'accuser', derives; the psalmist's enemies take up the accuser's role against him. The complaint of being repaid evil for good is a fixed motif of lament and wisdom literature, appearing also in Psalm 35:12, Proverbs 17:13, and Jeremiah 18:20.
About this translation
You are reading the Trinity Bible Version (TBV) — an original 2026 translation made straight from the Hebrew, in clear modern English, exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter of every book is free to read online. For the study edition — with Hebrew and Greek on every verse and the full translation notes — open Psalms in the Trinity Bible app.
Continue: Psalm 39 → · All of Psalms · About the TBV · Read Psalm 38 in the KJV
Get the app: iOS · Android · Trinity Plus