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When I lie down - I have so little rest, that when I do lie down I long for the return of the light, that I may rise. Nothing can better depict the state of a man under continual afflictions, which afford him no respite, his days and his nights being spent in constant anguish, utterly unable to be in any one posture, so that he is continually changing his position in his bed, finding ease nowhere: thus, as himself expresses it, he is full of tossings.
When I lie down - I find no comfort and no rest on my bed. My nights are long, and I am impatient to have them passed, and equally so is it with the day. This is a description which all can understand who have been laid on a bed of pain.
And the night be gone - Margin, evening be measured. Herder renders this, “the night is irksome to me.” The word rendered night (ערב ‛ereb ) properly means the early part of the night, until it is succeeded by the dawn. Thus, in Genesis 1:5,” And the evening (ערב ‛ereb ) and the morning were the first day.” Here it means the portion of the night which is before the dawning of the aurora - the night. The word rendered “be gone” and in the margin “be measured” (מדּד mı̂ddad ), has been variously rendered. The verb מדד mâdad means to stretch, to extend, to measure; and, according to Gesenius, the form of the word used here is a noun meaning flight, and the sense is, “when shall be the flight of the night?” He derives it from נדד nâdad to move, to flee, to flee away. So Rosenmuller explains it. The expression is poetic, meaning, when shall the night be gone?
I am full of tossings to and fro - (נדדים nâdûdı̂ym ). A word from the same root. It means uneasy motions, restlessness. He found no quiet repose on his bed.
Unto the dawning - נשׁף nesheph from נשׁף nâshaph to breathe; hence, the evening twilight because the breezes blow, or seem to breathe, and then it means also the morning twilight, the dawn. Dr. Stock renders it, “until the morning breeze.”