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Psalms

About this book
Psalm 38

1 A psalm of David, written to get God’s attention. O Lord, do not continue to rebuke me in your anger. Do not continue to punish me in your raging fury. 2 For your arrows pierce me, and your hand presses me down.⁠ 3 My whole body is sick because of your judgment; I am deprived of health because of my sin. 4 For my sins overwhelm me; like a heavy load, they are too much for me to bear. 5 My wounds are infected and starting to smell, because of my foolish sins. 6 I am dazed and completely humiliated; all day long I walk around mourning. 7 For I am overcome with shame, and my whole body is sick. 8 I am numb with pain and severely battered; I groan loudly because of the anxiety I feel. 9 O Lord, you understand my heart’s desire; my groaning is not hidden from you. 10 My heart beats quickly; my strength leaves me. The light of my eyes is not with me.19⁠ 11 Because of my condition, even my friends and acquaintances keep their distance; my neighbors stand far away.⁠ 12 Those who seek my life try to entrap me; those who want to harm me speak destructive words. All day long they say deceitful things. 13 But I am like a deaf man—I hear nothing; I am like a mute who cannot speak. 14 I am like a man who cannot hear and is incapable of arguing his defense. 15 Yet I wait for you, O Lord! You will respond, O Lord, my God! 16 I have prayed for deliverance, because otherwise they will gloat over me; when my foot slips they will arrogantly taunt me. 17 For I am about to stumble, and I am in constant pain. 18 Yes, I confess my wrongdoing, and I am concerned about my sins. 19 But those who are my enemies for no reason are numerous; those who hate me without cause outnumber me. 20 They repay me evil for the good I have done; though I have tried to do good to them, they hurl accusations at me. 21 Do not abandon me, O Lord. My God, do not remain far away from me. 22 Hurry and help me, O Lord, my deliverer.

Texts in conversation

Compare KTU 2.10:12 and Psalm 38:2

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Psalm 38 shares Ugaritic language for illness as a god's hand, making bodily suffering a sign of divine anger that calls for mercy.

Passages

KTU 2.10:12

Ancient Near East, Ugaritic · Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Message of Iwrdr. To Pilsiya say: May it be well with you. To Trgds and to Kalbiya: I have heard of the defeat. They are defeated. Now if they have not been defeated, then send to me. And the hand of the gods here is like death, very strong. If they have been overcome, your answer […] And whatever word you hear there, put in a letter to me.
1350–1185 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in KTU

Psalm 38:2

Hebrew Bible
1 A psalm of David, written to get God’s attention. O Lord, do not continue to rebuke me in your anger. Do not continue to punish me in your raging fury. 2 For your arrows pierce me, and your hand presses me down. 3 My whole body is sick because of your judgment; I am deprived of health because of my sin. 4 For my sins overwhelm me; like a heavy load, they are too much for me to bear. 5 My wounds are infected and starting to smell, because of my foolish sins. 6 I am dazed and completely humiliated; all day long I walk around mourning. 7 For I am overcome with shame, and my whole body is sick. 8 I am numb with pain and severely battered; I groan loudly because of the anxiety I feel. 9 O Lord, you understand my heart’s desire; my groaning is not hidden from you.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

“... 162 To list a few, Hebrew יד יהוה or the like in Exod 9:3; 1 Sam 6:9; Ps 38:3. For Ugaritic “yd ỉlm,” e.g., KTU 2.10:11–12; see Dennis Pardee, “As Strong as Death,” in in Love & Death in the Ancient Near East: Essays in Honor of Marvin H. Pope, eds. John H. Marks and Robert M. Good (Guilford, CT: Four Quarters, 1987), 65–69, esp. 67–68. For Akkadian “qāt DN” or the like, see KAR 44:r10 with Cynthia Jean, La Magie Néo-assyrienne En Contexte: Recherches Sur le métier d’exorciste et le Concept d’āšipūtu, SAAS 17 (Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 2006), 70; Ludlul Bēl Nēmeqi I:9, 11 and III:1 in Oshima, Babylonian Poems, 78–79, 94–95, 175; and many diagnostic cases in Scurlock and Andersen, Diagnoses, 429–528. Cf. J. V. Kinnier Wilson, “Medicine in the land and times of the Old Testament,” in Studies in the Period of David and Solomon and Other Essays: Papers Read at the International Symposium for Biblical Studies, Tokyo, 5–7 December 1979, ed. Tomoo Ishida (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1982), 337–365, esp. 349, 349n36; van der Toorn, Sin and Sanction, 78, 199n302, 199n304; Magdalene, On the Scales, 17. ...”
Sun Bok Bae, “Ethics and Morality in the Priestly Law and Narrative” (PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2021), 297.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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KTU 2.10:12 and Psalm 38:2

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