Psalmi 3:24

Nova Vulgata

Antequam comedam, suspiro, et quasi inundantes aquae sic rugitus meus.

Parallel Translations

Clementine Latin Vulgate (1592)
Antequam comedam, suspiro ; et tamquam inundantes aqu�, sic rugitus meus ;

Jerome's Latin Vulgate (405)
Antequam comedam, suspiro;
et tamquam inundantes aqu�, sic rugitus meus:

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

my sighing: Job 7:19, Psalms 80:5, Psalms 102:9

I eat: Heb. my meat

my roarings: Psalms 22:1, Psalms 22:2, Psalms 32:3, Psalms 38:8, Isaiah 59:11, Lamentations 3:8

Reciprocal: Job 7:20 - I am Psalms 31:10 - my life Lamentations 2:19 - pour Ezekiel 12:18 - General

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For my sighing cometh before I eat,.... Or, "before my bread", or "food" g; before he sat down to eat, or had tasted of his food, there were nothing but sighing and sobbing, so that he had no appetite for his food, and could take no delight in it; and, while he was eating, his tears mingled with it, so that these were his meat and his drink continually, and he was fed with the bread and water of affliction; and therefore what were light and life to such a person, who could not have the pleasure of one comfortable meal?

and my roarings are poured out like the waters; he not only wept privately and in secret, and cried more publicly both to God and in the presence of men, but such was the force and weight of his affliction, that he even roared out, and that like a lion; and his afflictions, which were the cause of these roarings, are compared to waters and the pouring of them out; for the noise these waterspouts made, and for the great abundance of them, and for their quick and frequent returns, and long continuance, one wave and billow rolling upon another.

g לפני לחמי "ante cibum meum", Junius Tremellius, Piscator "ante panem meum", Cocceius, Schmidt, Michaelis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For my sighing cometh before I eat - Margin, “My meat.” Dr. Good renders this,” Behold! my sighing takes the place of my daily food, and refers to Psalms 42:3, as an illustration:

My tears are my meat day and night.

So substantially Schultens renders it, and explains it as meaning, “My sighing comes in the manner of my food,” “Suspirium ad modum panis veniens” - and supposes it to mean that his sighs and groans were like his daily food; or were constant and unceasing. Dr. Noyes explains it as meaning, “My sighing comes on when I begin to eat, and prevents my taking my daily nourishment;” and appeals to a similar expression in Juvenal. Sat. xiii. 211:

Perpetua anxietas, nec mensae tempore cessat.

Rosenmuller gives substantially the same explanation, and remarks, also, that some suppose that the mouth, hands, and tongue of Job were so affected with disease, that the effort to eat increased his sufferings, and brought on a renewal of his sorrows. The same view is given by Origen; and this is probably the correct sense.

And my roarings - My deep and heavy groans.

Are poured out like the waters - That is,

(1) “in number” - they were like rolling billows, or like the heaving deep.

(2) Perhaps also in “sound” like them. His groans were like the troubled ocean, that can be heard afar. Perhaps, also,

(3.) he means to say that his groans were attended with “a flood of tears,” or that his tears were like the waves of the sea.

There is some hyperbole in the figure, in whichever way it is understood; but we are to remember that his feelings were deeply excited, and that the Orientals were in the habit of expressing themselves in a mode, which to us, of more phlegmatic temperament, may seem extravagant in the extreme. We have, however, a similar expression when we say of one that “he burst into a “flood of tears.””

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 3:24. For my sighing cometh — Some think that this refers to the ulcerated state of Job's body, mouth, hands, c. He longed for food, but was not able to lift it to his mouth with his hands, nor masticate it when brought thither. This is the sense in which Origen has taken the words. But perhaps it is most natural to suppose that he means his sighing took away all appetite, and served him in place of meat. There is the same thought in Psalms 42:3: My tears have been my meat day and night which place is not an imitation of Job, but more likely Job an imitation of it, or, rather, both an imitation of nature.

My roarings are poured out — My lamentations are like the noise of the murmuring stream, or the dashings of the overswollen torrent.