Many consider that the person who brought together the two separate compositions wrote this verse as a joining link between the two. In any case it describes the author’s present difficulties, which lead him to ask Yahweh for help (verses 13-17).

The countless evils which surround him seem to be the consequences of his sins which, like a flood, have encompassed him (see similar idea in 38.4). In some languages it is not natural to say that one is “surrounded by … troubles” (Good News Translation; Revised Standard Version evils have encompassed me). However, by using a verb phrase it is often possible to say, for example, “Those who cause me trouble are all around me,” or it is sometimes possible to maintain the image of being surrounded, through the use of a simile; for example, “I have many troubles, and they have surrounded me like enemies.”

The expression my iniquities have overtaken me is metaphorical and difficult to reproduce in some languages in that form. The clause seems to have the consequence in the following line of blinding the psalmist so that I cannot see. In some languages it is possible to say, for example, “my sins have caught hold of me and I cannot see where I am going” or “my sins have caught up with me and they are so many I cannot see my way.” Using the flood image it is sometimes possible to say “my sins are like a flood and have covered me” or “the wrongs that I do are so many they have drowned me like a flood.”

Since the statement I cannot see is strange in this context, Dahood proposes an emendation by which the text means “I am unable to escape.” But the text, as it is, may be taken to refer to the psalmist’s constant weeping, which causes his eyesight to fail (see similar expressions in 6.7; 38.10; see also 69.3). Bible en français courant translates “I cannot bear to look at them any longer” (similarly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). This makes sense, but it is unlikely that the Hebrew text means this.

With the use of an expressive figure, more than the hairs of my head, the psalmist confesses that his sins are many.

My heart fails me means “I have lost my courage (or, hope).”

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 .