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Friday, August 22nd, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Read the Bible

Young's Literal Translation

Psalms 38:5

Stunk -- become corrupt have my wounds, Because of my folly.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

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

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Fool;   Psalms, the Book of;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Disease;   Suffering;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Pit;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - English Versions;   Greek Versions of Ot;   Medicine;   Psalms;   Sin;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Psalms the book of;   Zion;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Stink;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Fool;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Fool;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
My wounds are foul and festeringbecause of my foolishness.
Hebrew Names Version
My wounds are loathsome and corrupt, Because of my foolishness.
King James Version
My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
English Standard Version
My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness,
New Century Version
My sores stink and become infected because I was foolish.
New English Translation
My wounds are infected and starting to smell, because of my foolish sins.
Amplified Bible
My wounds are loathsome and foul Because of my foolishness.
New American Standard Bible
My wounds grow foul and fester Because of my foolishness.
World English Bible
My wounds are loathsome and corrupt, Because of my foolishness.
Geneva Bible (1587)
My woundes are putrified, and corrupt because of my foolishnes.
Legacy Standard Bible
My wounds stink and rotBecause of my folly.
Berean Standard Bible
My wounds are foul and festering because of my sinful folly.
Contemporary English Version
Because of my foolishness, I am covered with sores that stink and spread.
Complete Jewish Bible
for my iniquities loom high over my head as a heavy burden, too heavy for me.
Darby Translation
My wounds stink, they are corrupt, because of my foolishness.
Easy-to-Read Version
I did a foolish thing, and now I have infected sores that stink.
George Lamsa Translation
My wounds are loathsome and corrupt because of my foolishness.
Good News Translation
Because I have been foolish, my sores stink and rot.
Lexham English Bible
My wounds start to stink; they rot because of my foolishness.
Literal Translation
My wounds have putrefied and rotted because of my foolishness.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
My woundes styncke & are corrupte, thorow my folishnesse.
American Standard Version
My wounds are loathsome and corrupt, Because of my foolishness.
Bible in Basic English
My wounds are poisoned and evil-smelling, because of my foolish behaviour.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
For mine iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
King James Version (1611)
My wounds stinke, and are corrupt: because of my foolishnesse.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
My woundes stinke and are corrupt: through my foolishnes.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
My bruises have become noisome and corrupt, because of my foolishness.
English Revised Version
My wounds stink and are corrupt, because of my foolishness.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Myn heelid woundis weren rotun, and ben brokun; fro the face of myn vnwisdom.
Update Bible Version
My wounds are loathsome and corrupt, Because of my foolishness.
Webster's Bible Translation
My wounds are offensive, [and] are corrupt because of my foolishness.
New King James Version
My wounds are foul and festering Because of my foolishness.
New Living Translation
My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins.
New Life Bible
My sores smell and grow bigger because I do foolish things.
New Revised Standard
My wounds grow foul and fester because of my foolishness;
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
My wounds are of bad odour - they have festered, by reason of my folly:
Douay-Rheims Bible
(37-6) My sores are putrefied and corrupted, because of my foolishness.
Revised Standard Version
My wounds grow foul and fester because of my foolishness,
THE MESSAGE
The cuts in my flesh stink and grow maggots because I've lived so badly. And now I'm flat on my face feeling sorry for myself morning to night. All my insides are on fire, my body is a wreck. I'm on my last legs; I've had it— my life is a vomit of groans.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
My wounds grow foul and fester Because of my folly.

Contextual Overview

1 A Psalm of David, `To cause to remember.' Jehovah, in Thy wrath reprove me not, Nor in Thy fury chastise me. 2 For Thine arrows have come down on me, And Thou lettest down upon me Thy hand. 3 Soundness is not in my flesh, Because of Thine indignation, Peace is not in my bones because of my sin. 4 For mine iniquities have passed over my head, As a heavy burden -- too heavy for me. 5 Stunk -- become corrupt have my wounds, Because of my folly. 6 I have been bent down, I have been bowed down -- unto excess, All the day I have gone mourning. 7 For my flanks have been full of drought, And soundness is not in my flesh. 8 I have been feeble and smitten -- unto excess, I have roared from disquietude of heart. 9 Lord, before Thee [is] all my desire, And my sighing from Thee hath not been hid. 10 My heart [is] panting, my power hath forsaken me, And the light of mine eyes, Even they are not with me.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

My wounds: The soul being invisible, its distempers are also so; therefore the sacred writers describe them by the distempers of the body. - See the parallel texts on these verses. On reading these and similar passages, say Bp. Lowth, some, who were but little acquainted with the genius of Hebrew poetry, have pretended to enquire into the nature of the disease with which the poet was afflicted; not less absurdly, in my opinion, than if they had perplexed themselves to discover in what river he was plunged, when he complains that "the deep waters had gone over his soul." Psalms 38:7, Psalms 32:3, Isaiah 1:5, Isaiah 1:6, Jeremiah 8:22

Reciprocal: Job 2:8 - took him Job 7:5 - flesh Job 30:18 - By the great Psalms 14:3 - filthy Psalms 109:24 - my flesh Nahum 3:6 - I will cast

Cross-References

Genesis 38:11
And Judah saith to Tamar his daughter-in-law, `Abide a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son groweth up;' for he said, `Lest he die -- even he -- like his brethren;' and Tamar goeth and dwelleth at her father's house.
Genesis 38:26
And Judah discerneth and saith, `She hath been more righteous than I, because that I did not give her to Shelah my son;' and he hath not added to know her again.
Genesis 46:12
And sons of Judah: Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Pharez, and Zarah, (and Er and Onan die in the land of Canaan.) And sons of Pharez are Hezron and Hamul.
Numbers 26:20
And sons of Judah, by their families, are: of Shelah the family of the Shelanite; of Pharez the family of the Pharzite; of Zerah the family of the Zarhite;
1 Chronicles 4:21
Sons of Shelah son of Judah: Er father of Lecah, and Laadah father of Mareshah, and the families of the house of the service of fine linen, of the house of Ashbea;

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 all the distress that is spoken of both before and afterwards.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

My wounds stink - The word rendered “wounds” here means properly the swelling or wales produced by stripes. See the notes at Isaiah 1:6; notes at Isaiah 53:5. The meaning here is, that he was under chastisement for his sin; that the stripes or blows on account of it had not only left a mark and produced a swelling, but that the skin itself had been broken, and that the flesh had become corrupt, and the sore offensive. Many expositors regard this as a mere figurative representation of the sorrow produced by the consciousness of sin; and of the loathsome nature of sin, but it seems to me that the whole connection rather requires us to understand it of bodily suffering, or of disease.

And are corrupt - The word used here - מקק mâqaq - means properly to melt; to pine away; and then, to flow, to run, as sores and ulcers do. The meaning here is, My sores run; to wit, with corrupt matter.

Because of my foolishness - Because of my sin, regarded as folly. Compare the notes at Psalms 14:1. The Scripture idea is that sin is the highest folly. Hence, the psalmist, at the same time that he confesses his sin, acknowledges also its foolishness. The idea of sin and that of folly become so blended together - or they are so entirely synonymous - that the one term may be used for the other.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 38:5. My wounds stink and are corrupt — Taking this in connection with the rest of the Psalm, I do not see that we can understand the word in any figurative or metaphorical way. I believe they refer to some disease with which he was at this time afflicted; but whether the leprosy, the small pox, or some other disorder that had attacked the whole system, and showed its virulence on different parts of the outer surface, cannot be absolutely determined.

Because of my foolishness. — This may either signify sin as the cause of his present affliction, or it may import an affliction which was the consequence of that foolish levity which prefers the momentary gratification of an irregular passion to health of body and peace of mind.


 
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