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Psalm 109:22-24
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 109:22-24
New Catholic Bible
22 For I am poor and needy,[a]
and my heart is pierced within me.
23 I am fading away[b] like an evening shadow;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak from fasting;
my flesh is wasting away.
Footnotes
- Psalm 109:22 Poor and needy: see note on Ps 22:27. Heart: see note on Ps 4:8.
- Psalm 109:23 I am fading away: the psalmist’s illness draws the scorn of enemies (see note on Ps 5:10). Like an evening shadow: similar to Ps 102:12. Shaken off like a locust: allusion to the custom of brushing locusts off the plants in order to kill them on the ground. Another translation possible is: “swept away like a locust,” an image similar to Job 30:22; in Palestine a strong wind sometimes ends a plague of locusts by blowing them out into the sea (see Ex 10:19; Joel 2:20).
