It is difficult to decide whether I am ready to fall refers to the psalmist’s physical condition, weakened by his illness (“I am about to die”), or to his situation in face of his enemies (they are about to ruin him). In verse 16b he speaks of his foot slipping, and here he states that at any time he could fall fatally, meaning either total ruin or death (see Anderson). Perhaps something like “I am ready to give up” best expresses the psalmist’s feelings. New Jerusalem Bible translates “I am on the verge of collapse,” and Bible en français courant “I am about to disappear.”

My pain is ever with me must often be recast to say, for example, “I suffer all the time,” “my pain never leaves me,” or sometimes idiomatically, “pain has taken hold of my body and never lets go.”

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 .