Psalm 107:27
◄  Psalm 107:27  ►
New International Version (©2011)
They reeled and staggered like drunkards; they were at their wits' end.

New Living Translation (©2007)
They reeled and staggered like drunkards and were at their wits' end.

English Standard Version (©2001)
they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits’ end.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
They reeled and staggered like a drunken man, And were at their wits' end.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
they reeled and staggered like drunken men, and all their skill was useless.

International Standard Version (©2012)
They reeled and staggered like a drunkard, as all their wisdom became useless.

NET Bible (©2006)
They swayed and staggered like a drunk, and all their skill proved ineffective.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English (©2010)
They shook and were agitated like drunkards and all their wisdom came to nothing.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
They reeled and staggered like drunks, and all their skills as sailors became useless.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end.

American King James Version
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end.

American Standard Version
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, And are at their wits end.

Douay-Rheims Bible
They were troubled, and reeled like a drunken man; and all their wisdom was swallowed up.

Darby Bible Translation
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and they are at their wits' end:

English Revised Version
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.

Webster's Bible Translation
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end.

World English Bible
They reel back and forth, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.

Young's Literal Translation
They reel to and fro, and move as a drunkard, And all their wisdom is swallowed up.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

107:23-32 Let those who go to sea, consider and adore the Lord. Mariners have their business upon the tempestuous ocean, and there witness deliverances of which others cannot form an idea. How seasonable it is at such a time to pray! This may remind us of the terrors and distress of conscience many experience, and of those deep scenes of trouble which many pass through, in their Christian course. Yet, in answer to their cries, the Lord turns their storm into a calm, and causes their trials to end in gladness.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 27. - They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man. The oldest sailor "loses his sea-legs," and staggers about the deck like a landsman, or like one drunk. And are at their wit's end; literally, as in the margin, and all their wisdom is swallowed. But the English idiom of the Authorized Version is a very happy, one, and exactly expresses the writer's meaning. All the seaman's intelligence is at fault, and can suggest nothing.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,.... Through the agitation of the water, and motion of the ship, not being able to stand upon deck.

And are at their wit's end; or, "all their wisdom is swallowed up" (n); their wisdom in naval affairs, their art of navigation, their skill in managing ships, all nonplussed and baffled; they know not what method to take to save the vessel and themselves; their knowledge fails them, they are quite confounded and almost distracted. So Apollinarius paraphrases it,

"they forget navigation, and their wise art does not appear;''

so Ovid, describing a storm, uses the same phrase, "deficit ars",

"art fails.''

(n) "omnis sapientia eorum absorpta est", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus; so Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

27. are … end—literally, "all their wisdom swallows up itself," destroys itself by vain and contradictory devices, such as despair induces.

Psalm 107:27 Parallel Commentaries

Psalm 107:27 NIV
Psalm 107:27 NLT
Psalm 107:27 ESV
Psalm 107:27 NASB
Psalm 107:27 KJV

Bible Hub: Online Parallel Bible


His Loving Kindness Endures Forever
…26They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. 27They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end. 28Then they cry to the LORD in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distresses. …

Job 12:25 They grope in darkness with no light; he makes them stagger like drunkards.
Psalm 107:28 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress.
Isaiah 24:20 The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls--never to rise again.