What Does Psalm 42:3 Mean in the King James?

My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?

Psalm 42:3 · KJV

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

The accusation “Where is thy God?” lands as tears have become the speaker’s bread, holding grief and the search for God in the same daily life.

THE MEANING

Your grief reaches through day and night, becoming as immediate as daily food. Around that pain, the question keeps returning: Where is God? The verse lets the sorrow and the accusation remain fully spoken.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The taunt assumes that visible grief proves God is absent; the verse records the speaker’s pain without letting the taunt explain it away.

THE ROOT

דִּמְעָתִי

dimʿati

GROWS FROM

דמע

d-m-ʿ

To weep, to shed tears.

The Hebrew noun stands on the verb for weeping, holding the act of weeping and the tears it leaves together. The Hebrew word ⁨לֶחֶם⁩ (lechem, “bread” or “food”) makes those tears the speaker’s daily intake, not a passing feeling.

ALSO GROWS

dāmaʿ: To weep or shed tears.

דָּמַע

The verb names the action behind the tears that fill the speaker’s day and night.

dimʿah: A tear; weeping.

דִּמְעָה

The noun makes grief visible in the tears that become the speaker’s bread.

THE PATTERN

Scripture gives sorrow bodily substance, naming tears as food, drink, and the material of prayer.

Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure.

Psalm 80:5 · KJVTears become bread and drink here too, making grief part of daily life.

I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.

Psalm 6:6 · KJVThe speaker describes grief through the body, with tears filling the night.

Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

Hebrews 5:7 · KJVTears are present in prayer, giving anguish a voice directed toward God.

THE THREAD

Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure.

Psalm 80:5 · KJV

This verse uses the same pairing: tears become bread. Psalm 80 extends the image to a people who eat the bread of tears and drink tears, connecting this line’s day-and-night grief with a shared language of lament.

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