Psalms 6:7 · Bible study
Psalms 6:7 Commentary: The Eye That Wastes Away With Grief
Hebrew · 10 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Does the psalmist describe literal deterioration from tears? A study of Psalm 6:7 on grief, enemies, and the physical toll of sorrow.
Research Summary
- Meaning: The psalmist’s grief is so deep it physically affects his sight, his eye wastes away and grows dim from weeping.
- Key words: “Consumed” / “wastes away” (from a root meaning to fall in, collapse), “grief” (can include indignation), “adversaries” (those who press in and distress).
- Main debate: Literal deterioration from tears versus a metaphor for total affliction. Both views acknowledge the depth of the suffering.
- Theological theme: The body bears the weight of a troubled soul; prayer is the bridge from despair to restored confidence.
- Best use: A model for honest lament, affirming that physical symptoms of grief belong in prayer, and that God hears the weeping.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
My eyes fail from grief; they grow dim because of all my foes.
WEB World English Bible 2000
My eye wastes away because of grief. It grows old because of all my adversaries.
KJV King James Version 1769
Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
Mine eye wasteth away because of grief; It waxeth old because of all mine adversaries.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
Old from provocation is mine eye, It is old because of all mine adversaries,
Darby Darby Bible 1890
Mine eye wasteth away through grief; it hath grown old because of all mine oppressors.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
I have laboured in my groanings, every night I will wash my bed: I will water my couch with my tears.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Mis ojos están carcomidos de descontento; hanse envejecido á causa de todos mis angustiadores.
Meus olhos estão desolados de mágoa, e têm se envelhecido por causa de todos os meus adversários.
Je m’ épuise à force de gémir;
Meine Gestalt ist verfallen vor Trauern und alt ist geworden; denn ich werde allenthalben geängstet.
Ik ben moede van mijn zuchten; ik doe mijn bed den gansen nacht zwemmen; ik doornat mijn bedstede met mijn tranen.
L’occhio mio si consuma dal dolore, invecchia a cagione di tutti i miei nemici.
Spracowałem się od wzdychania mego; opływa na każdą noc pościel moja, a łoże moje mokre jest od łez.
Утомлен я воздыханиями моими: каждую ночь омываю ложе мое, слезами моими омочаю постель мою.
我因憂愁 眼睛 乾癟，又因我一切的 敵人 眼睛昏花。
My eyes are wasting away with trouble; they are becoming old because of all those who are against me.
Verse in Context
Scholars' Consensus
Psalm 6:7 depicts the psalmist's eye as wasting away and growing old because of grief and adversaries. Barnes notes that the Hebrew verb ‘âshêsh means “to fall in, to fall away,” applied to the eye pining with tears. The eye appears to exhaust itself, growing dim like an old man’s. Gill adds that prolonged weeping weakens the visive faculty. Calvin argues this language is metaphorical: the psalmist’s life was in grave danger, but the cause was not necessarily bodily sickness, it could be any overwhelming affliction. Cambridge Bible agrees the eye’s look indicates mental and bodily health. All commentators concur the phrase expresses the depth of his anguish, though they differ on whether David describes literal physical damage from weeping or a rhetorical intensification of his suffering.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Literal physical deterioration: The plain sense of the Hebrew verb ‘âshêsh (to fall in, waste away) and the parallel with Job 17:7, Psalm 31:9 – tears physically weaken the eyes.
- Metaphorical intensification: Calvin argued the language is metaphorical for the totality of affliction; the psalmist's situation was life-threatening but not necessarily bodily sickness.
- Penitential / spiritual anguish: The context of the psalm as one of the seven penitential psalms (Lange) and the psalmist's cry for mercy (v. 2) link the eye's condition to guilt and fear of God's wrath.
What is clear: The verse undeniably expresses extreme sorrow that affects the entire person, body and spirit, and is brought before God in honest prayer.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Nature of the eye's condition | All commentators see it as a sign of overwhelming grief that affects the whole person. | Some (Barnes, Gill) read it as literal physical damage from weeping; others (Calvin) treat it as metaphorical language for the extremity of affliction. |
| Identity of the adversaries | The adversaries are those who cause distress and contribute to the psalmist's sorrow. | Traditionally seen as Absalom and his conspirators (Barnes), or as general personal enemies, or as the psalmist's own sin and the wrath of God (Calvin). |
| Penitential interpretation | The psalm has been used as a penitential prayer across traditions (Lange, Matthew Henry). | Matthew Henry sees it as expression of a broken and contrite spirit under divine chastening; Calvin links the grief to the fear of God's anger; some modern readers focus on the lament aspect without identifying specific sin. |
Historical & Cultural Context
In ancient Hebrew poetry, the eye is a window to the inner person, joy brightens it (Proverbs 15:30), sorrow dims it. Tears in the ancient world were understood to physically deplete the body. The psalmist’s “eye waxeth old” draws on a common idiom: extreme grief ages a person. Job 17:7 echoes this: “My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow.” The same language appears in Psalms 31:9 and 38:10, where the eye fails along with strength.
The word translated “adversaries” (tsorerai) means those who distress or press in on him. The psalmist’s enemies are not merely opposition; they are agents of his affliction. Most likely David wrote this during a season of severe trial, perhaps during the rebellion of Absalom (2 Samuel 15, 18) or after his sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12). Both situations brought public shame and inner collapse. The psalmist’s grief is not hidden; it bleeds into his body. Verse 6 describes drenching his bed with tears night after night. This is not polite sorrow, it is the kind that leaves physical traces.
The psalm belongs to the seven penitential psalms (Lange’s commentary notes this long tradition). Christians have read it as the prayer of a man brought to death’s door by divine chastening, yet clinging to the mercy of God.
Textual Notes
The supplied sources note no significant manuscript variants for Psalm 6:7. The Hebrew text is stable across traditions. All consulted translations render the verse consistently, with minor differences in English phrasing (e.g., “consumed,” “wastes away,” “fail”), but no textual dispute is recorded.
Reception History
Psalm 6 has been received as the first of the seven penitential psalms in both Jewish and Christian tradition (Lange’s commentary highlights this). Early church fathers such as Augustine used the psalm to teach the discipline of repentance. In the medieval period, it was recited on Ash Wednesday and during Lent. Reformation commentators like Calvin and Luther saw in it the pattern of a soul crushed by the awareness of sin yet clinging to God's mercy. Matthew Henry (1710) called it “the language of a heart truly humbled under humbling providences.” Modern liturgical use remains strong: the psalm provides words for those whose grief has become visible in their bodies.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- Grief that leaves a mark. The psalmist’s eye wastes away, not from a single tear but from sustained sorrow. Physical symptoms often accompany deep anguish.
- Suffering with enemies near. His adversaries surround him, but he does not retaliate. Instead, he brings the pain to God.
- From weeping to confidence. By verse 8 the tone turns: Yahweh has heard his weeping. Grief is not the final word.
Five-point outline
- The honest anatomy of affliction, the eye, the bones, the soul (vv. 2, 3).
- No quick fix, but a cry for mercy (v. 2).
- Physical deterioration as the cost of sorrow (v. 7).
- The enemy question, not a plot to be solved but a prayer to be heard (v. 8).
- Assurance: the Lord accepts prayer (v. 9).
Illustration hooks
- A pastor visits a young woman whose vision has nearly failed from illness and grief, Barnes used exactly this picture from his own ministry.
- Anyone who has cried until their eyes burn and vision blurs understands the psalmist’s words. The physical toll of grief is real.
- An elderly person whose eyes have grown dim with age, the psalmist says grief can do the same thing, decades early.
Questions your congregation is asking
- “If my grief makes me physically sick, does that mean I lack faith?” (The psalmist shows that faithful people do not hide their pain.)
- “How can I pray when I can barely speak?” (This psalm offers raw, tear-soaked words as a model.)
- “What do I do with the people who caused my suffering?” (The psalmist does not take revenge, he hands them over to God’s justice.)
Leading a Discussion
Psalm 6:7 sits at the turning point of a lament. The psalmist has poured out his complaint, and he is about to declare that God has heard him. The image of a wasted eye shows that suffering touches the whole person, body, mind and spirit. This study invites your group to consider how grief shows up in physical ways and how prayer bridges the gap between despair and hope.
Discussion questions
- Read Psalm 6:6, 7. What do the physical details (flooding the bed, dim eyes) tell you about the psalmist’s state?
- In verse 7, the psalmist says his eye wastes away “because of grief” and also “because of all my adversaries.” How are the two causes connected?
- Barnes, writing in 1832, recalls a young woman losing her sight from grief. Have you seen sorrow affect someone’s health? How does that change your reading of this verse?
- Calvin thought the language might be metaphorical, David was not literally sick but describing the intensity of his trouble. Which reading do you find more helpful: literal deterioration or metaphor? Why?
- The psalm ends with confidence (vv. 8, 10). How does naming the pain openly help the move toward hope?
- What does this psalm teach about bringing physical symptoms of grief to God in prayer?
- How can your group support someone whose grief is visible, in their eyes, their posture, their health?
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Job 17:7 | My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow. |
| Psalms 31:9 | Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am in distress. My eye, my soul, and my body waste away with grief. |
| Psalms 31:10 | For my life is spent with sorrow, my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity. My bones are wasted away. |
| Psalms 32:3 | When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. |
| Psalms 38:10 | My heart throbs. My strength fails me. As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me. |
| Psalms 88:9 | My eyes are dim from grief. I have called on you daily, Yahweh. I have spread out my hands to you. |
| Lamentations 5:17 | For this our heart is faint. For these things our eyes are dim: |
Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
7 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke draws attention to the Hebrew word behind "consumed," which describes the eye as blasted, withered, or sunken in its socket. His point is that grief in this verse is not just tearful but physically devastating, literally deforming the eye.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes focuses on the physical, wasting effect of grief on the eye itself, drawing on the Hebrew root that means to fall in or pine away. He insists the word refers to the eye, not the countenance, and compares its dimming to the vision loss of old age. For Barnes this directly describes David's suffering caused by Absalom and his allies.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
Geneva Notes observes that the psalmist's physical distress—a dimmed, sunken eye—is directly caused by the spite and oppression of his enemies. The condition is not merely emotional or internal; it is a visible effect of the contempt he endures from those who oppose him.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill identifies the grief as mixed with anger and indignation, shown by the Hebrew word used. He sees the psalmist’s tears as arising from personal affliction, his own sin, or the sins of others, all of which wear down the eye. Enemies press so hard that weeping itself weakens and ages the sight.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB notes that the Hebrew word translated "consumed" means "has failed," pointing to a general loss of strength. "Waxeth old" means "dim," likely referring to the eyes. The word for "grief" carries a mingling of indignation, not just sorrow.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange argues that the psalmist's suffering comes not from physical sickness but from distress over ungodly enemies and the sense of God's wrath. He prays not for a moderated punishment but for the chastisement to be entirely removed, since it would destroy him unless grace intervenes. The motive for deliverance is both God's own glory and the psalmist's genuine desire to offer thanks while still alive.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Matthew Henry emphasizes that David, though a king, a warrior, and a godly man, still suffered physical pain and sickness. This shows that neither rank, strength, nor goodness exempts anyone from such trials, and it encourages believers to follow David's example by pouring out their bodily complaints to God.