What Does Psalm 38:2 Mean in the King James?
For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
One Hebrew verb makes the arrows inside you and the hand over you the same motion: both descend.
THE MEANING
The arrows sink into you, and the hand presses down upon you; the verse gives both sensations a single downward force. Your pain is spoken directly to God in the moment you feel it, without being explained away.
THE ROOT
נִחֲתוּ
niḥăṭû
GROWS FROM
נחת
n-ḥ-t
to descend, come down
“stick fast / presseth me sore” in this verse is niḥăṭû. Alongside “stick fast” and “presseth me sore,” both Hebrew verbs carry the image of descending. The shared root joins the arrow sinking into you with the hand coming down upon you as one movement.
ALSO GROWS
niḥăṭû: they descended, sank down
נִחֲתוּ
The arrows are felt as coming down into the speaker.
vattinḥat: and it came down, descended
וַתִּנְחַת
The hand repeats the same descent upon the speaker, joining the inward wound to the weight pressing over him.
naḥat zeroʿo: the descent or “lighting down” of his arm
נַחַת זְרוֹעוֹ
Isaiah uses the same root for an arm coming down, echoing the hand’s descent in this verse.
THE PATTERN
Suffering is given direct speech at full force.
To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David. Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:THE THREAD
And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.Isaiah uses נחת (naḥat, “descent”) for the visible coming down of the LORD’s arm. Here, that same descent is felt as arrows entering and a hand pressing; the shared root joins both images in one motion.
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