20 Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am afflicted. He expresses more distinctly not only that he was confounded, or ashamed at the sad aspect which he presented of having been deserted, but that he was well nigh overwhelmed with sorrow by lying so long under reproach and shame. Whence it is evident that he did not overcome this sorrow without a struggle; and that the reason why he so firmly withstood the waves of temptations was, not because they did not reach his heart, but because, being sorely smitten, he made resistance with a corresponding degree of intrepidity. He states, as an additional aggravation of his distress, that every office of humanity was withheld from him: that there was nobody who had compassion upon him, or to whom he could disburden his griefs. Some take the word nvd, nud, for to tell or recount; and undoubtedly when we pour out our complaints to our friends, it affords some alleviation to our distress. Thus he employs as an argument for obtaining mercy from God, the consideration that he was deprived of all aid and comfort from his fellow-men.
Reproach hath broken my heart - The reproaches, the calumnies, the aspersions, the slanders of others, have crushed me. I am not able to bear up under them; I fail under the burden. Distress may become so great that life may sink under it, for many die of what is called "a broken heart." Undeserved reproaches will be as likely to produce this result on a sensitive heart as any form of suffering; and there are thousands who are crushed to the earth by such reproaches.
And I am full of heaviness - Or, I am sick; I am weak; I am ill at ease. My strength is gone.
And I looked for some to take pity - Margin, "to lament with me." The meaning of the Hebrew word is to pity; to commiserate; to show compassion. Job 2:11; Job 42:11; Isaiah 51:19; Jeremiah 16:5.
But there was none - There was no one whose heart seemed to be touched with compassion in the case; none who sympathized with me.
And for comforters - For those who would show sympathy for me; who would evince a friendly feeling in my distress.
But I found none - He felt that he was utterly forsaken by mankind. There is no feeling of desolation like that.
Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and (q) I looked [for some] to take pity, but [there was] none; and for comforters, but I found none.
(q) He shows men that it is vain to put our trust in men in our great necessity, but that our comfort only depends on God: for man increases our sorrows, then diminishes them, (John 19:29).
Reproach hath broken my heart,.... This was his case when his soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death, and his heart like wax melted in the midst of his bows is, Matthew 26:38;
and I am full of heaviness; as he was in the garden, Mark 14:33; or, "very sick, yea, incurably sick", as the word (g) signifies; see 2-Samuel 12:15. For what cure is there for a broken heart?
and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none: his disciples forsook him and fled; the priests, scribes, and common people, that attended him at the cross, mocking him; the thieves that were crucified with him reviled him; and his Father hid his face from him; only a few women stood afar off and lamented.
(g) "adeo ut afficiar aegritudine", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "dolui vel aegritudine affectus sum", Gejerus.
*More commentary available at chapter level.