Psalm 102:4
 Psalm 102:4 
New International Version (©2011)
My heart is blighted and withered like grass; I forget to eat my food.

New Living Translation (©2007)
My heart is sick, withered like grass, and I have lost my appetite.

English Standard Version (©2001)
My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
My heart has been smitten like grass and has withered away, Indeed, I forget to eat my bread.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
My heart is afflicted, withered like grass; I even forget to eat my food.

International Standard Version (©2012)
Withered like grass, my heart is overwhelmed, and I have even forgotten to eat my food.

NET Bible (©2006)
My heart is parched and withered like grass, for I am unable to eat food.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English (©2010)
My heart withers like grass and is dried up because I have forgotten the food of my bread.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
My heart is beaten down and withered like grass because I have forgotten about eating.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.

American King James Version
My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.

American Standard Version
My heart is smitten like grass, and withered; For I forget to eat my bread.

Douay-Rheims Bible
I am smitten as grass, and my heart is withered: because I forgot to eat my bread.

Darby Bible Translation
My heart is smitten and withered like grass; yea, I have forgotten to eat my bread.

English Revised Version
My heart is smitten like grass, and withered; for I forget to eat my bread.

Webster's Bible Translation
My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread.

World English Bible
My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread.

Young's Literal Translation
Smitten as the herb, and withered, is my heart, For I have forgotten to eat my bread.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

102:1-11 The whole word of God is of use to direct us in prayer; but here, is often elsewhere, the Holy Ghost has put words into our mouths. Here is a prayer put into the hands of the afflicted; let them present it to God. Even good men may be almost overwhelmed with afflictions. It is our duty and interest to pray; and it is comfort to an afflicted spirit to unburden itself, by a humble representation of its griefs. We must say, Blessed be the name of the Lord, who both gives and takes away. The psalmist looked upon himself as a dying man; My days are like a shadow.


Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - My heart is smitten. As with a stroke from the sun (see Psalm 121:6; Hosea 9:16). And withered like grass. As grass upon the house tops (Psalm 129:6), or, indeed, in any exposed place under an Eastern sun. So that I forget to eat my bread; literally, for I forget, etc. The fact is adduced as a proof of the heart's condition (comp. Job 33:20; 1 Samuel 1:7; 1 Samuel 20:34, etc.).


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

My heart is smitten, and withered like grass,.... Like grass in the summer solstice (d), which being smitten with the heat of the sun, or by some blast of thunder and lightning, is dried up, and withers away; so his heart was smitten with a sense of sin, and of God's wrath and displeasure at him, and with the heat of affliction and trouble, that it failed him, and he could not look up with joy and comfort:

so that I forget to eat my bread; sometimes, through grief and trouble, persons refuse to eat bread, as Jonathan and Ahab, which is a voluntary act, and purposely done; but here, in the psalmist, there was such a loss of appetite, through sorrow, that he forgot his stated meals, having no manner of inclination to food: some understand this of spiritual food, the bread of life, refusing to be comforted with it; so the Targum,

"for I forgot the law of my doctrine.''

(d) "Quasi solstitialis herba paulisper fui", Plauti Pseudolus, Acts 1. Sc. 1. v. 36.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. (Compare Ps 121:6).

so that I forget—or, "have forgotten," that is, in my distress (Ps 107:18), and hence strength fails.


Psalm 102:4 Parallel Commentaries

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Do Not Hide Your Face from Me
3For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as an hearth. 4My heart is smitten, and withered like grass; so that I forget to eat my bread. 5By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones stick to my skin. …

James 1:11 For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.
1 Samuel 1:7 This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.
2 Samuel 12:17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.
Ezra 10:6 Then Ezra withdrew from before the house of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib. While he was there, he ate no food and drank no water, because he continued to mourn over the unfaithfulness of the exiles.
Job 33:20 so that their body finds food repulsive and their soul loathes the choicest meal.
Psalm 6:2 Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am faint; heal me, LORD, for my bones are in agony.
Psalm 37:2 for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.
Psalm 90:5 Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death-- they are like the new grass of the morning:
Psalm 90:6 In the morning it springs up new, but by evening it is dry and withered.
Psalm 102:11 My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass.
Psalm 107:18 They loathed all food and drew near the gates of death.
Isaiah 40:7 The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass.