Psalm - 88:17



17 They came around me like water all day long. They completely engulfed me.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Psalm 88:17.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
They came round about me daily like water; they compassed me about together.
They came round about me like water all the day long; They compassed me about together.
They have come round about me like water all the day: they have compassed me about together.
They have surrounded me all the day like water; they have compassed me about together.
They came around me daily like water; they encompassed me together.
They have surrounded me as waters all the day, They have gone round against me together,
They are round me all the day like water; they have made a circle about me.
Thy fierce wrath is gone over me; Thy terrors have cut me off.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

They came round about me daily like water - Margin, "as in" Hebrew, all the day. That is, his troubles seemed to be like the waves of the sea cohnstantly breaking on the shore. See Psalm 42:7.
They compassed me about together - My troubles did not come singly, so that I could meet them one at a time, but they seemed to have banded themselves together; they all came upon me at once.

They came round about me daily like water - Besides his spiritual conflicts, he had many enemies to grapple with. The waves of God's displeasure broke over him, and his enemies came around him like water, increasing more and more, rising higher and higher, till he was at last on the point of being submerged in the flood.

They came round about me daily like water,.... That is, the terrors of the Lord, the sorrows of death and hell, Psalm 18:4, this was the Messiah's case, when it was with him as is expressed Psalm 69:1,
they compassed me about together; as waters coming from many places, from all quarters, meet together, and together surround a person or place in such circumstances was Christ, when the bulls of Bashan beset him around, and the assembly of the wicked enclosed him, and innumerable evils encompassed him about, Psalm 22:12.

Water - As the waters of the sea encompass him who is in the midst of it.

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