Psalm 39 Young's Literal Translation

About YLT

Individual translator
OT: Masoretic Hebrew
NT: Textus Receptus
Protestant (66 books)
Very literal
1898
Public domain

Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings

Notes on this text (1)

Greek and Latin Bibles number most Psalms one lower than Hebrew and English Bibles.

YLT Young's Literal Translation

WEB World English Bible (Classic, with Deuterocanon)

1 To the Overseer, to Jeduthun. — A Psalm of David. I have said, 'I observe my ways, Against sinning with my tongue, I keep for my mouth a curb, while the wicked [is] before me.'

1 For the Chief Musician. For Jeduthun. A Psalm by David. I said, “I will watch my ways, so that I don’t sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle while the wicked is before me.”

2 I was dumb [with] silence, I kept silent from good, and my pain is excited.

2 I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred.

3 Hot [is] my heart within me, In my meditating doth the fire burn, I have spoken with my tongue.

3 My heart was hot within me. While I meditated, the fire burned. I spoke with my tongue:

4 'Cause me to know, O Jehovah, mine end, And the measure of my days — what it [is],' I know how frail I [am].

4 “Yahweh, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.

5 Lo, handbreadths Thou hast made my days, And mine age [is] as nothing before Thee, Only, all vanity [is] every man set up. Selah.

5 Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.

6 Only, in an image doth each walk habitually, Only, [in] vain, they are disquieted, He heapeth up and knoweth not who gathereth them.

6 “Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.

7 And, now, what have I expected? O Lord, my hope — it [is] of Thee.

7 Now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.

8 From all my transgressions deliver me, A reproach of the fool make me not.

8 Deliver me from all my transgressions. Don’t make me the reproach of the foolish.

9 I have been dumb, I open not my mouth, Because Thou — Thou hast done [it].

9 I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it.

10 Turn aside from off me Thy stroke, From the striving of Thy hand I have been consumed.

10 Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

11 With reproofs against iniquity, Thou hast corrected man, And dost waste as a moth his desirableness, Only, vanity [is] every man. Selah.

11 When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, you consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah.

12 Hear my prayer, O Jehovah, And [to] my cry give ear, Unto my tear be not silent, For a sojourner I [am] with Thee, A settler like all my fathers.

12 “Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were.

13 Look from me, and I brighten up before I go and am not!

13 Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away and exist no more.”

Cross references (13)

Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.

Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences

What the Fathers said

Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).

How these were chosen

“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).

Commentary Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms (Psalm XXXVIII)
What doth this recollection of the Sabbath mean? What is this Sabbath? For it is with groaning that he "calls it to recollection." You have both heard already when the Psalm was read, and you will now hear it when we shall go over it, how great is his groaning, his mourning, his tears, his misery.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
Quotes verse 39:11 Augustine of Hippo, Confessions (Book VII, Chapters X–XV)
… feed upon me; nor shall thou convert me, like the food of thy flesh, into thee, but thou shall be converted into me." And I learned that Thou for iniquity dost correct man, and Thou dost make my soul to consume away like a spider. And I said, "Is Truth, therefore, nothing because it is neither diffused through space, finite, …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
Quotes verse 39:12 John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew (Homily LXIV)
"For I am a stranger," saith he, "and a sojourner, as all my fathers were." For this man, and all that are like him, let pass them that had sinned, and thought of those who had approved themselves.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
Quotes verse 39:5 Augustine of Hippo, Confessions (Book XI, Chapters XXII–XXV)
This is my hope; for this do I live, that I may contemplate the delights of the Lord. Behold, Thou hast made my days old, and they pass away, and in what manner I know not.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)

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