“For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me.”
— WEB
Psalms 40:12
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Translations sourced from the public-domain WEB, KJV, and ASV. See all sources.
“For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.”
— KJV
“For innumerable evils have compassed me about; Mine iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; They are more than the hairs of my head; And my heart hath failed me.”
— ASV
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Commentary
evils--inflicted by others. iniquities--or penal afflictions, and sometimes calamities in the wide sense. This meaning of the word is very common (Psa 31:11; Psa 38:4; compare Gen 4:13, Cain's punishment; Gen 19:15, that of Sodom; Sa1 28:10, of the witch of En-dor; also Sa2 16:12; Job 19:29; Isa 5:18; Isa 53:11). This meaning of the word is also favored by the clause, "taken hold of me," which follows, which can be said appropriately of sufferings, but not of sins (compare Job 27:20; Psa 69:24). Thus, the difficulties in referring this Psalm to Christ, arising from the usual reading of this verse, are removed. Of the terrible afflictions, or sufferings, alluded to and endured for us, compare Luk 22:39-44, and the narrative of the scenes of Calvary. my heart faileth me-- (Mat 26:38), "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." cannot look up--literally, "I cannot see," not denoting the depression of conscious guilt, as Luk 18:13, but exhaustion from suffering, as dimness of eyes (compare Psa 6:7; Psa 13:3; Psa 38:10). The whole context thus sustains the sense assigned to iniquities.
— Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary (public domain)
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