Psalm 102:5

By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Skin.—See margin. In Lamentations 4:8, more correctly, “my skin cleaveth to my bones;” a picture of emaciation, the result of fasting.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

102:1-11 The whole word of God is of use to direct us in prayer; but here, is often elsewhere, the Holy Ghost has put words into our mouths. Here is a prayer put into the hands of the afflicted; let them present it to God. Even good men may be almost overwhelmed with afflictions. It is our duty and interest to pray; and it is comfort to an afflicted spirit to unburden itself, by a humble representation of its griefs. We must say, Blessed be the name of the Lord, who both gives and takes away. The psalmist looked upon himself as a dying man; My days are like a shadow.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

By reason of the voice of my groaning - By suffering and trouble, so great as to produce groaning, my flesh is wasted away.

My bones cleave to my skin - Margin, "flesh." The Hebrew word means "flesh." The effect described is that of a wasting away or an emaciation of flesh from deep distress, so that the bones became prominent, and had nothing to hide them from view; so that they seemed to adhere fast to the flesh itself. See the notes at Job 19:20. <.PBy reason of the voice of my groaning

My bones cleave to my flesh.

See also Job 6:12; Job 19:20; Lamentations 3:4. Leanness is also put to denote the displeasure of God, in Psalm 106:15 :

And he gave them their request;

But sent leanness into their soul.

Compare Isaiah 10:16.

The treacherous dealers - The foreign nations that disregard covenants and laws; that pursue their object by deceit, and stratagem, and fraud. Most conquests are made by what are called the stratagems of war; that is, by a course of perfidy and deception. There can be no doubt that the usual mode of conquest was pursued in regard to Jerusalem. This whole clause is exceedingly emphatic. The word implying treachery (בגד bâgad) is repeated no less than five times in various forms in this single clause, and shows how strongly the idea had taken possession of the mind of the prophet. The passage furnishes one of the most remarkable examples of the "paronomasia" occurring in the Bible. בגדוּ בגדים בגדוּ וּבגד בוגדים bâgâdû bogidiym bâgâdû ûbeged bôgediym. In fact, this figure abounds so much in this chapter that Gesenius contends that it is not the production of Isaiah, but a composition belonging to a later and less elegant period of Hebrew literature.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. voice … groaning—effect put for cause, my agony emaciates me.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

My flesh being quite consumed with excessive sorrows.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

By reason of the voice of my groaning,.... Under the burden of sin, and pressure of afflictions:

my bones cleave to my skin; was quite emaciated, reduced to a skeleton, became nothing but skin and bone (e); which sometimes is occasioned, as by outward afflictions, so by soul troubles: or "to my flesh" (f); flesh is put for skin; see Job 19:20.

(e) "Ossa atque pellis sum", Plauti Capteivei, Acts 1. Sc. 2. v. 26. Asinaria 3. 6. v. 28. (f) "carni meae", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, &c.

Geneva Study Bible

By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. If the A.V. is retained, the verse will describe the state of emaciation to which he has been reduced by continued sorrow. Cp. Lamentations 4:8. But though the cognate Arabic word means skin, it is doubtful whether the Heb. word bâsâr can bear this sense. Usage requires the rendering of R.V., ‘my bones cleave to my flesh,’ which means apparently that his limbs are swollen and stiff. The phrase seems to be borrowed from Job 19:20, “my bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh,” where Job describes his limbs as partly emaciated, partly abnormally swollen, and stiff with disease. The curious rendering of the P.B.V. “my bones [Coverdale, bone] will scarce cleave to my flesh,” comes from the Zürich Version:—“Vor geschrey mines seufftzens mag mein gebeyn kum an meinem fleysch hangen.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - By reason of the voice of my groaning; i.e. "by reason of the affliction which causes my groaning." My bones cleave to my skin; literally, to my flesh, but the Authorized Version rightly expresses the meaning (comp. Job 19:20; Lamentations 4:8). Psalm 102:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

From this point onward the Psalm becomes original. Concerning the Beth in בעשׁן, vid., on Psalm 37:20. The reading כּמו קד (in the Karaite Ben-Jerucham) enriches the lexicon in the same sense with a word which has scarcely had any existence. מוקד (Arabic mauḳid) signifies here, as in other instances, a hearth. נחרוּ is, as in Psalm 69:4, Niphal: my bones are heated through with a fever-heat, as a hearth with the smouldering fire that is on it. הוּכּה (cf. יגודּוּ, Psalm 94:21) is used exactly as in Hosea 9:16, cf. Psalm 121:5. The heart is said to dry up when the life's blood, of which it is the reservoir, fails. The verb שׁכח is followed by מן of dislike. On the cleaving of the bones to the flesh from being baked, i.e., to the skin (Arabic bašar, in accordance with the radical signification, the surface of the body equals the skin, from בשׂר, to brush along, rub, scrape, scratch on the surface), cf. Job 19:20; Lamentations 4:8. ל (אל) with דּבק is used just like בּ. It is unnecessary, with Bttcher, to draw מקּול אנחתי to Psalm 102:5. Continuous straining of the voice, especially in connection with persevering prayer arising from inward conflict, does really make the body waste away.