Chapter Overview
Summary
Psalm 6 is the first of the seven 'penitential psalms' of Christian tradition (along with Pss 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143). It combines physical-weakness imagery ('my bones shake,' 'my eye grows dim') with theological distress ('how long, O LORD?') and closes with confidence in answered prayer. The 'depart from me, all you workers of evil' at v. 9 (MT) is cited by Jesus at Matthew 7:23 / Luke 13:27 as the judgment-day dismissal formula.
Notable Variants
6:9 'depart from me, all you workers of evil' (apostēte ap' emou pantes hoi ergazomenoi tēn anomian) cited at Matt 7:23 and Luke 13:27 as Jesus' final judgment-dismissal; 6:6 'in death there is no memory of You' as part of pre-resurrection Sheol theology.
Structural Notes
LXX Psalm 6 has 11 verses matching MT.
For the director of music. With stringed instruments, on the eighth. A psalm of David.
Superscription 'on the eighth' (epi tēs ogdoēs in LXX) — possibly referring to an eight-stringed instrument or the eighth musical-mode. The detail suggests this psalm had a specific liturgical-performance setting.
O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger; do not discipline me in Your wrath.
'Do not rebuke me in your anger' tracks MT. The opening petition acknowledges deserved discipline but pleads for mercy. Jeremiah 10:24 echoes verbatim.
Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am wasting away. Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are shaking.
'My bones are shaking' tracks MT. The physical-distress-as-spiritual-distress pattern is paradigmatic for biblical lament psalmody.
My whole being is deeply shaken — and You, O LORD — how long?
'How long, O LORD?' tracks MT. The 'how long' (heōs pote) question is the psalmist's paradigmatic complaint (Ps 13, 62, 74, 80, 90, 94). Revelation 6:10 ('how long, O sovereign Lord') puts the question in the mouth of the martyrs.
Turn back, O LORD, rescue my life; save me because of Your faithful love.
'Save me because of your faithful love' tracks MT.
For in death there is no memory of You; in Sheol, who will praise You?
Masoretic (WLC)
כִּי אֵין בַּמָּוֶת זִכְרֶךָ בִּשְׁאוֹל מִי יוֹדֶה־לָּךְ
For in death there is no memory of You; in Sheol, who will praise You?
Septuagint (LXX)
ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν τῷ θανάτῳ ὁ μνημονεύων σου ἐν δὲ τῷ ᾅδῃ τίς ἐξομολογήσεταί σοι
For in death there is no one who remembers you; and in Hades, who will confess to you?
SHEOL / HADES THEOLOGY. The LXX renders Hebrew she'ol as hadēs — consistently, giving the NT its underworld-vocabulary. Matthew 16:18 ('the gates of hades shall not prevail against it'), Luke 16:23 (rich man in hades), Acts 2:27, 31 (Christ not abandoned to hades) all use this LXX-Psalms vocabulary.
The pre-resurrection theology of Psalm 6:6 — 'no praise in Sheol' — creates a theological urgency for divine rescue NOW, since posthumous worship is impossible. This pre-resurrection framing is what resurrection-theology (Dan 12:2, Isa 26:19, and ultimately NT resurrection) transforms: praise continues beyond death because the dead will be raised.
1 Corinthians 15:54–55 ('death is swallowed up in victory … O death, where is your sting?') explicitly triumphs over the Psalm-6-era pessimism about posthumous praise.
I am exhausted from my groaning; every night I flood my bed; with my tears I drench my couch.
'Every night I flood my bed with tears' tracks MT. The hyperbolic-grief imagery is poetic-liturgical — physical intensity matching spiritual intensity.
My eye has grown dim from grief; it has aged because of all my enemies.
'My eye has grown dim from grief' tracks MT. The physical-decline-from-grief motif — familiar from Job and lament-psalms — appears in the NT at Luke 19:41 (Jesus weeps over Jerusalem) and Phil 2:27 (Epaphroditus nearly dying from grief).
Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
Masoretic (WLC)
סוּרוּ מִמֶּנִּי כָּל־פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן
Depart from me, all you workers of evil
Septuagint (LXX)
ἀπόστητε ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ πάντες οἱ ἐργαζόμενοι τὴν ἀνομίαν
Depart from me, all you workers of lawlessness
JESUS' JUDGMENT-DAY DISMISSAL. Matthew 7:23 ('depart from me, you workers of lawlessness,' apochōreite ap' emou hoi ergazomenoi tēn anomian) and Luke 13:27 ('depart from me, all you workers of unrighteousness') both cite this LXX-Psalm-6:9 phrase.
The anomia ('lawlessness') vocabulary is distinctly LXX. Paul deploys it extensively (Rom 4:7, 6:19, 2 Thess 2:3, 7; Titus 2:14). 1 John 3:4 ('sin is anomia') defines sin precisely with the LXX-Psalm-6:9 word.
Jesus' judgment-day quotation transforms the psalmist's personal imprecation against his enemies into the Messianic-Judge's eschatological-dismissal of the unsaved — a striking Christological escalation of the Davidic prayer.
The LORD has heard my plea for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer.
'The LORD has heard my plea' — the prayer-heard assurance that closes the petition-section.
All my enemies will be ashamed and deeply shaken; they will turn back — ashamed in an instant.
Enemies-turned-back closing tracks MT.