What Does Psalms 77:2 Mean?

(2) **My sore ran** **. . .**—The text of this verse is evidently faulty. As it stands it is unintelligible. *My hand was poured out and grew not dull *(like a corpse). The LXX. and Vulg. have, “with my hands against Him**, **and I was not deceived,” pointing to a different reading. Symmachus has, however, “my hand was stretched out,” which may be a possible meaning of the Hebrew, though a comparison with Lamentations 3:49 (comp. Lamentations 2:18) suggests that *eye *was written instead of *hand. *The Authorised Version’s *sore *comes from the Rabbins, who thought of the hand beating the breast, and rendered, “my blows were poured out.” Though the probable text may be beyond recovery, the feeling of the verse is quite palpable. It expresses the anguish of the poet’s soul— “His vows in the night, so fierce and unavailing, Stings of his shame and passion of his tears.”