What Does Psalm 38:3 Mean in the King James?
There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.
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
What sounds like two complaints is one loss of wholeness running through flesh and bones, traced to anger and personal missing.
THE MEANING
You find no soundness in your flesh and no wholeness in your bones beneath the weight of God’s anger and your own missing. The verse holds bodily distress and personal responsibility together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that inner rupture stays abstract and separate from the body; here, the speaker’s flesh and bones register that rupture.
THE ROOT
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be complete or whole; to make whole.
The word translated “rest” carries the sense of wholeness, not only quiet. Its absence in the bones describes a loss of bodily integrity.
ALSO GROWS
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch makes clear that the bones lack wholeness, not merely a pause from activity.
shillem: To repay or make restitution.
שִׁלֵּם
The same root can describe making good what is due; here, wholeness is what the bones lack.
חַטָּאתִי
chatati
GROWS FROM
חטא
ch-t-ʾ
To miss or miss the mark.
“my sin” in this verse is chatati. The root opens the familiar word “sin” to the sense of missing. Because the speaker says “my,” the verse holds personal responsibility together with the bodily distress.
ALSO GROWS
chet: A missing, a miss.
חֵטְא
This is the project’s root sense beneath “sin,” connecting the speaker’s admission to the loss of wholeness.
chote: One who misses.
חֹטֵא
This branch keeps the missing personal, as the verse does with “my sin.”
מְתֹם
metom
GROWS FROM
תמם
t-m-m
To be complete or whole.
The word for “soundness” shares a sense of completeness with shalom, though it comes from a different root. Hebrew places two words for wholeness in the verse: one absent from the flesh and one absent from the bones.
ALSO GROWS
tam: Whole, complete, integral.
תָּם
This branch reveals the integrity missing from the flesh.
tamim: Complete, whole.
תָּמִים
Its completeness echoes the wholeness named by shalom, showing the same loss across both clauses.
THE PATTERN
Scripture describes inner distress and bodily condition as intertwined, with loss or restoration of wholeness felt in the flesh and bones.
A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.THE THREAD
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.Both verses use the Hebrew word עֶצֶם (etsem, bone or substance) for the bones where distress is felt. Psalm 38:3 says they lack wholeness; Psalm 32:3 describes them wearing down beneath silence and roaring.
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