The psalmist describes in detail his condition, which is caused by his foolishness, which is sin (Taylor: “sin that comes through stupid indifference to discipline”). His wounds grow foul and fester, that is, they get worse and they stink. This seems to describe some sort of skin disease; the translation wounds (Revised Standard Version and others) carries the idea, in English, of injuries suffered in a beating, which does not seem to be the case here. Elsewhere the word does mean “blow, stripe” (Gen 4.23; Exo 21.25; Pro 20.30; Isa 1.6; 53.5), and Briggs, noting the similarity of the language here to Isaiah 1.6, says these are “wounds resulting from the divine scourging.” Whatever their source, the language clearly seems to be describing the psalmist’s physical condition literally; he is not speaking in figurative terms.

The basic element of foolishness in the Hebrew Scriptures is a denial of God’s rule in human affairs, which leads such a person to folly and sin (see especially 14.1). The term foolishness here applies to the moral failing of the writer, and in many languages is rendered idiomatically; for example, “because I have had a bent heart,” or “because my heart has lead me on a bad path,” or “because I am a failing-heart person.”

In vivid language the psalmist, in verse 6, describes his pitiable condition. He has no strength left, all his vitality is gone. He shuffles along bowed down, or else lies prostrate, so intense is his misery. He is so sad that he cries and weeps all day long.

The translator has two problems with I am utterly bowed down and prostrate: first, whether it will be clear to retain the figures; and second, whether it will be necessary in some languages to provide an agent which is the cause of the action. For example, “My pain is so great it has bent me down, down to the dust.” If the bowed down figure cannot be used, one may sometimes say “My pain is so great that I cannot stand up.”

Here mourning is not used in the specific sense of weeping over the death of a friend, but in the general sense of weeping, crying. I go about mourning may have to be recast as a simile. For example, “I am like a person in mourning” or “I go about weeping like a person in mourning.” In some languages, where there is a single cause followed by two or more consequences, it is often necessary to repeat the cause with each consequence. For example, “Because of my foolishness, my wounds grow foul; because of my foolishness my wounds fester.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .