תהלים 102:4

Hebrew Modern Translation

הוכה כעשב ויבש לבי כי שכחתי מאכל לחמי׃

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Aleppo Codex
[102:5] ויבש לבי כי-שכחתי מאכל לחמי

Biblia Hebrica Stuttgartensia (1967/77)
[102:5] הוּכָּֽה־כָ֭עֵשֶׂב וַיִּבַ֣שׁ לִבִּ֑י כִּֽי־שָׁ֝כַ֗חְתִּי מֵאֲכֹ֥ל לַחְמִֽי ׃

Westminster Leningrad Codex
[102:5] הוּכָּֽה־כָעֵשֶׂב וַיִּבַשׁ לִבִּי כִּֽישָׁ־כַחְתִּי מֵאֲכֹל לַחְמִֽי ׃

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

heart: Psalms 6:2, Psalms 6:3, Psalms 42:6, Psalms 55:4, Psalms 55:5, Psalms 69:20, Psalms 77:3, Psalms 143:3, Psalms 143:4, Job 6:4, Job 10:1, Lamentations 3:13, Lamentations 3:20, Matthew 26:37, Matthew 26:38

withered: Psalms 102:11, Psalms 37:2, Isaiah 40:7

so that: Psalms 102:9, 1 Samuel 1:7, 1 Samuel 1:8, Ezra 10:6, Acts 9:9

Reciprocal: Psalms 32:4 - moisture Psalms 109:22 - and my Psalms 109:24 - my flesh Psalms 119:83 - like a bottle in the smoke Psalms 142:3 - my spirit Isaiah 38:14 - a crane Jeremiah 4:9 - that the heart Ezekiel 12:18 - General 1 Peter 1:24 - all flesh

Gill's Notes on the Bible

My heart is smitten, and withered like grass,.... Like grass in the summer solstice d, which being smitten with the heat of the sun, or by some blast of thunder and lightning, is dried up, and withers away; so his heart was smitten with a sense of sin, and of God's wrath and displeasure at him, and with the heat of affliction and trouble, that it failed him, and he could not look up with joy and comfort:

so that I forget to eat my bread; sometimes, through grief and trouble, persons refuse to eat bread, as Jonathan and Ahab, which is a voluntary act, and purposely done; but here, in the psalmist, there was such a loss of appetite, through sorrow, that he forgot his stated meals, having no manner of inclination to food: some understand this of spiritual food, the bread of life, refusing to be comforted with it; so the Targum,

"for I forgot the law of my doctrine.''

d "Quasi solstitialis herba paulisper fui", Plauti Pseudolus, Act. 1. Sc. 1. v. 36.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

My heart is smitten - Broken; crushed with grief. We now speak of “a broken heart.” Even death is often caused by such excessive sorrow as to crush and break the heart.

And withered like grass - It is dried up as grass is by drought, or as when it is cut down. It loses its support; and having no strength of its own, it dies.

So that I forget to eat my bread - I am so absorbed in my trials; they so entirely engross my attention, that I think of nothing else, not even of those things which are necessary to the support of life. Grief has the effect of taking away the appetite, but this does not seem to be the idea here. It is that of such a complete absorption in trouble that everything else is forgotten.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 102:4. My heart is smitten, and withered like grass — The metaphor here is taken from grass cut down in the meadow. It is first smitten with the scythe, and then withered by the sun. Thus the Jews were smitten with the judgments of God; and they are now withered under the fire of the Chaldeans.