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Read the Bible

New King James Version

Psalms 42:3

My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, "Where is your God?"

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Desire;   Infidelity;   Persecution;   Scoffing;   Seekers;   Tears;   Thirst;   Thompson Chain Reference - Desire;   Desire-Satisfaction;   Hunger;   Spiritual;   Tears;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Korah;   Poetry of the Hebrews;   Psalms, the Book of;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Grief and Mourning;   Soul;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - English Versions;   Greek Versions of Ot;   Jonah;   Korah, Korahites;   Music and Musical Instruments;   Prayer;   Psalms;   Sin;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Living (2);   People's Dictionary of the Bible - David;   God;   Korah;   Psalms the book of;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Meat;   Tears;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Music;   Praise;   Psalms, Book of;   Tears;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for December 31;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
My tears have been my food day and night,while all day long people say to me,“Where is your God?”
Hebrew Names Version
My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually ask me, "Where is your God?"
King James Version
My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
English Standard Version
My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, "Where is your God?"
New Century Version
Day and night, my tears have been my food. People are always saying, "Where is your God?"
New English Translation
I cannot eat, I weep day and night; all day long they say to me, "Where is your God?"
Amplified Bible
My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
New American Standard Bible
My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
World English Bible
My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually ask me, "Where is your God?"
Geneva Bible (1587)
My teares haue bin my meate day & night, while they dayly say vnto me, Where is thy God?
Legacy Standard Bible
My tears have been my food day and night,While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
Berean Standard Bible
My tears have been my food both day and night, while men ask me all day long, "Where is your God?"
Contemporary English Version
Day and night my tears are my only food, as everyone keeps asking, "Where is your God?"
Complete Jewish Bible
I am thirsty for God, for the living God! When can I come and appear before God?
Darby Translation
My tears have been my bread day and night, while they say unto me all the day, Where is thy God?
Easy-to-Read Version
Instead of food, I have only tears day and night, as my enemies laugh at me and say, "Where is your God?"
George Lamsa Translation
My tears have been my bread day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is your God?
Good News Translation
Day and night I cry, and tears are my only food; all the time my enemies ask me, "Where is your God?"
Lexham English Bible
My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
Literal Translation
My tears have been my food by day and by night, while they say to me all the day, Where is your God?
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Now when I thinke there vpo, I poure out my hert by my self: for I wolde fayne go hence with the multitude, & passe ouer with them vnto the house of God, in ye voyce of prayse & thankesgeuynge, amonge soch as kepe holy daye.
American Standard Version
My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
Bible in Basic English
My tears have been my food day and night, while they keep saying to me, Where is your God?
JPS Old Testament (1917)
My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:
King James Version (1611)
My teares haue bene my meate day and night; while they continually say vnto me, Where is thy God?
Bishop's Bible (1568)
My teares haue ben my meate day and nyght: whyle they dayly say vnto me where is [nowe] thy God.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
My tears have been bread to me day and night, while they daily said to me, Where is thy God?
English Revised Version
My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Mi teeris weren looues to me bi dai and nyyt; while it is seid to me ech dai, Where is thi God?
Update Bible Version
My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, Where is your God?
Webster's Bible Translation
My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, Where [is] thy God?
New Living Translation
Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, "Where is this God of yours?"
New Life Bible
My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
New Revised Standard
My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, "Where is your God?"
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
My tears have been my food day and night, While it hath been said unto me all the day, Where is thy God?
Douay-Rheims Bible
(41-4) My tears have been my bread day and night, whilst it is said to me daily: Where is thy God?
Revised Standard Version
My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me continually, "Where is your God?"
Young's Literal Translation
My tear hath been to me bread day and night, In their saying unto me all the day, `Where [is] thy God?'
New American Standard Bible (1995)
My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"

Contextual Overview

1 To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation [fn] of the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water brooks,So pants my soul for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.When shall I come and appear before God? [fn] 3 My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, "Where is your God?" 4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast. 5 Why are you cast down, O my soul?And why are you disquieted within me?Hope in God, for I shall yet praise HimFor the help of His countenance. [fn]

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

tears: Psalms 80:5, Psalms 102:9, 2 Samuel 16:12, *marg.

while: Psalms 42:10, Psalms 3:2, Psalms 22:8, Psalms 79:10, Psalms 79:12, Psalms 115:2

Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 4:18 - when he made 1 Samuel 7:6 - drew water 2 Samuel 15:30 - and wept as he went up Psalms 6:6 - I water Psalms 22:2 - I cry Psalms 88:9 - Mine Ecclesiastes 4:1 - the tears Isaiah 36:4 - What Jeremiah 9:1 - weep Micah 7:10 - Where Luke 6:21 - ye that weep

Cross-References

Genesis 42:5
And the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
Genesis 42:13
And they said, "Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and in fact, the youngest is with our father today, and one is no more."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

My tears have been my meat day and night,.... That is, he could not eat for sorrow, like Hannah, 1Sa 1:7,8; or while he was eating tears fell in plenty, and they were as common, day and night, as his food, and mixed with it f; see Psalms 80:5;

while they continually say unto me, his enemies the Philistines,

where [is] thy God? theirs were to be seen and pointed at, as the host of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars, and idols of gold, silver, brass, wood, and stone; wherefore they ask, where was his? but David's God was invisible; he is in the heavens, and does what he pleases,

Psalms 115:2; or the sense is, that if there was such a God he believed in and professed, and he was his servant, surely he would never have suffered him to fall into so much distress and calamity, but would have appeared for his relief and deliverance; and therefore tauntingly, and by way of reproach, ask where he was.

f "--lachrymaeque alimenta fuere", Ovid. Metamorph. l. 10. Fab. 1. v. 75.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

My tears have been my meat - The word rendered tears in this place is in the singular number, and means literally weeping. Compare Psalms 39:12. The word meat here means literally bread, and is used in the general signification of food, as the word meat is always used in the English version of the Bible. The English word meat, which originally signified food, has been changed gradually in its signification, until it now denotes in common usage animal food, or flesh. The idea here is, that instead of eating, he had wept. The state described is that which occurs so often when excessive sorrow takes away the appetite, or destroys the relish for food, and occasions fasting. This was the foundation of the whole idea of fasting - that sorrow, and especially sorrow for sin, takes away the desire for food for the time, and leads to involuntary abstinence. Hence arose the correlative idea of abstaining from food with a view to promote that deep sense of sin, or to produce a condition of the body which would be favorable to a proper recollection of guilt.

Day and night - Constantly; without intermission. See the notes at Psalms 1:2. “While they continually say unto me.” While it is constantly said to me; that is, by mine enemies. See Psalms 42:10.

Where is thy God? - See Psalms 3:2; Psalms 22:8. The meaning here is, “He seems to be utterly forsaken or abandoned by God. He trusted in God. He professed to be his friend. He looked to him as his protector. But he is now forsaken, as if he had no God; and God is treating him as if he were none of his; as if he had no love for him, and no concern about his welfare.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 42:3. My tears have been my meat day and night — My longing has been so intense after spiritual blessings, that I have forgotten to take my necessary food; and my sorrow has been so great, that I have had no appetite for any. I feel more for the honour of my God and his truth than for myself, when the idolaters, who have thy people in captivity, insultingly cry, Where is thy God?


 
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