By reason of my loud groaning [from suffering and trouble] my flesh cleaves to my bones.
My bone clings to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped with the skin or gums of my teeth.
[Prolonged famine has made] them look blacker than soot and darkness; they are not recognized in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones; it is withered and it has become [dry] like a stick.
A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. [Prov. 12:25; 15:13, 15.]
Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. [Matt. 7:23; Luke 13:27.]
I am weary with my groaning; all night I soak my pillow with tears, I drench my couch with my weeping.
So it was year after year; whenever Hannah went up to the Lord's house, Peninnah provoked her, so she wept and did not eat.
He comes forth like a flower and withers; he flees also like a shadow and continues not.
In the morning it flourishes and springs up; in the evening it is mown down and withers.