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Thursday, August 21st, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible

Young's Literal Translation

Psalms 38:17

For I am ready to halt, And my pain [is] before me continually.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Conviction;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Psalms, the Book of;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Halt;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - English Versions;   Greek Versions of Ot;   Psalms;   Sin;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Halting;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Psalms the book of;   Zion;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Resurrection;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
For I am about to fall,and my pain is constantly with me.
Hebrew Names Version
For I am ready to fall. My pain is continually before me.
King James Version
For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.
English Standard Version
For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever before me.
New Century Version
I am about to die, and I cannot forget my pain.
New English Translation
For I am about to stumble, and I am in constant pain.
Amplified Bible
For I am ready to fall; My sorrow is continually before me.
New American Standard Bible
For I am ready to fall, And my sorrow is continually before me.
World English Bible
For I am ready to fall. My pain is continually before me.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Surely I am ready to halte, and my sorow is euer before me.
Legacy Standard Bible
For I am ready to fall,And my sorrow is continually before me.
Berean Standard Bible
For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me.
Contemporary English Version
I am about to collapse from constant pain.
Complete Jewish Bible
I said, "Don't let them gloat over me or boast against me when my foot slips."
Darby Translation
For I am ready to halt, and my pain is continually before me.
Easy-to-Read Version
I know I am guilty of doing wrong. I cannot forget my pain.
George Lamsa Translation
I am prepared to suffer, and my sorrow is continually with me.
Good News Translation
I am about to fall and am in constant pain.
Lexham English Bible
For I am ready to stumble, and my pain is before me continually.
Literal Translation
For I am ready to fall and my pain is before me always.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I am redy to suffre trouble, and my heuynesse is euer in my sight.
American Standard Version
For I am ready to fall, And my sorrow is continually before me.
Bible in Basic English
My feet are near to falling, and my sorrow is ever before me.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
For I said: 'Lest they rejoice over me; when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.'
King James Version (1611)
For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Because I am disposed to a haltyng: and my sorowe is euer in my syght.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For I am ready for plagues, and my grief is continually before me.
English Revised Version
For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For Y am redi to betyngis; and my sorewe is euere in my siyt.
Update Bible Version
For I am ready to fall, And my sorrow is continually before me.
Webster's Bible Translation
For I [am] ready to halt, and my sorrow [is] continually before me.
New King James Version
For I am ready to fall, And my sorrow is continually before me.
New Living Translation
I am on the verge of collapse, facing constant pain.
New Life Bible
For I am ready to fall. And my sorrow is always with me.
New Revised Standard
For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For, I, to halt, am ready, and, my pain, is before me continually;
Douay-Rheims Bible
(37-18) For I am ready for scourges: and my sorrow is continually before me.
Revised Standard Version
For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me.
THE MESSAGE
I'm on the edge of losing it— the pain in my gut keeps burning. I'm ready to tell my story of failure, I'm no longer smug in my sin. My enemies are alive and in action, a lynch mob after my neck. I give out good and get back evil from God-haters who can't stand a God-lover.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
For I am ready to fall, And my sorrow is continually before me.

Contextual Overview

12 And those seeking my soul lay a snare, And those seeking my evil Have spoken mischievous things, And they do deceits meditate all the day. 13 And I, as deaf, hear not. And as a dumb one who openeth not his mouth. 14 Yea, I am as a man who heareth not, And in his mouth are no reproofs. 15 Because for Thee, O Jehovah, I have waited, Thou dost answer, O Lord my God. 16 When I said, `Lest they rejoice over me, In the slipping of my foot against me they magnified themselves. 17 For I am ready to halt, And my pain [is] before me continually. 18 For mine iniquity I declare, I am sorry for my sin. 19 And mine enemies [are] lively, They have been strong, and those hating me without cause, Have been multiplied. 20 And those paying evil for good accuse me, Because of my pursuing good. 21 Do not forsake me, O Jehovah, My God, be not far from me,

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

to halt: Heb. for halting, Psalms 35:15, *marg. Micah 4:6, Micah 4:7

sorrow: Psalms 38:6, Psalms 6:6, Psalms 77:2, Psalms 77:3, Isaiah 53:3-5

Reciprocal: Genesis 32:31 - he halted Psalms 13:2 - sorrow

Cross-References

Genesis 38:20
And Judah sendeth the kid of the goats by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the hand of the woman, and he hath not found her.
Genesis 38:24
And it cometh to pass about three months [after], that it is declared to Judah, saying, `Tamar thy daughter-in-law hath committed fornication; and also, lo, she hath conceived by fornication:' and Judah saith, `Bring her out -- and she is burnt.'
Genesis 38:25
She is brought out, and she hath sent unto her husband's father, saying, `To a man whose these [are], I [am] pregnant;' and she saith, `Discern, I pray thee, whose [are] these -- the seal, and the ribbons, and the staff.'
Proverbs 20:16
Take his garment when a stranger hath been surety, And for strangers pledge it.
Ezekiel 16:33
To all whores they give a gift, And -- thou hast given thy gifts to all thy lovers, And dost bribe them to come in unto thee, From round about -- in thy whoredoms.
Luke 16:8
`And the lord commended the unrighteous steward that he did prudently, because the sons of this age are more prudent than the sons of the light, in respect to their generation.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For I [am] ready to halt,.... Meaning either that there was a proneness in him to sin; see Jeremiah 20:10; or that he was subject to affliction and adversity, as the same word is rendered in Psalms 35:15; and the words are either a reason and argument used with the Lord, to hear and keep his foot from slipping, that so his enemies might not rejoice over him, and magnify themselves against him; as they would do should he fall into sin or into any calamity, both which he was liable to: or they are a reason why he was so calm and quiet under the ill usage he met with from friends and enemies, because he was "ready for halting", or "prepared" o for it; he considered that he was born for trouble and adversity; that God had appointed him to it, and it was appointed for him, and therefore he was quiet under it; see Job 5:6; he was prepared to meet it; he expected it, it being the common lot of God's people; and therefore when it came upon him it was no strange thing to him. The Septuagint version, and those that follow that, render the words, "I am ready for scourges"; and Jerom applies them to Christ, who was ready to undergo scourges, sufferings, and death itself, for his people;

and my sorrow [is] continually before me; that is, for his sin, which was ever before him, stared him in the face, lay heavy on his conscience, and appeared very terrible and loathsome to him; his sorrow for it was without intermission, and was a godly sorrow, a sorrow for sin, as committed against a God of love, grace, and mercy: or he may mean, that his affliction, which was grievous to him, was continually upon him night and day: our Lord himself, David's antitype, was a man of sorrows all his days.

o נכון V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For I am ready to halt - Margin, as in Hebrew, “for halting.” The word from which the word used here is derived means properly to lean on one side, and then to halt or limp. The meaning here is, that he was like one who was limping along, and who was ready to fall; that is, in the case here referred to, he felt that his strength was almost gone, and that he was in continual danger of falling into sin, or sinking under his accumulated burdens, and of thus giving occasion for all that his enemies said of him, or occasion for their triumphing over him. Men often have this feeling - that their sorrows are so great that they cannot hope to hold out much longer, and that if God does not interpose they must fall.

And my sorrow is continually before me - That is, my grief or suffering is unintermitted. Probably the reference here is particularly to that which “caused” his grief, or which was the source of his trouble - his sin. The fact that he was a sinner was never absent from his mind; that was the source of all his trouble; that was what so pressed upon him that it was likely to crush him to the dust.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 38:17. For I am ready to halt — Literally, I am prepared to halt. So completely infirm is my soul, that it is impossible for me to take one right step in the way of righteousness, unless strengthened by thee.


 
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