Psalm 107:27
New International Version
They reeled and staggered like drunkards; they were at their wits’ end.

New Living Translation
They reeled and staggered like drunkards and were at their wits’ end.

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

Berean Standard Bible
They reeled and staggered like drunkards, and all their skill was useless.

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

New King James Version
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, And are at their wits’ end.

New American Standard Bible
They reeled and staggered like a drunken person, And were at their wits’ end.

NASB 1995
They reeled and staggered like a drunken man, And were at their wits’ end.

NASB 1977
They reeled and staggered like a drunken man, And were at their wits’ end.

Legacy Standard Bible
They staggered and swayed like a drunken man, And all their wisdom was swallowed up.

Amplified Bible
They staggered and trembled like a drunken man, And were at their wits’ end [all their wisdom was useless].

Christian Standard Bible
they reeled and staggered like a drunkard, and all their skill was useless.

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

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

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

Brenton Septuagint Translation
They are troubled, they stagger as a drunkard, and all their wisdom is swallowed up.

Contemporary English Version
You staggered like drunkards and gave up all hope.

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

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

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

Good News Translation
they stumbled and staggered like drunks--all their skill was useless.

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

JPS Tanakh 1917
They reeled to and fro, and staggered like a drunken man, And all their wisdom was swallowed up--

Literal Standard Version
They reel to and fro, and move as a drunkard, | And all their wisdom is swallowed up.

Majority Standard Bible
They reeled and staggered like drunkards, and all their skill was useless.

New American Bible
They reeled, staggered like drunkards; their skill was of no avail.

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

New Revised Standard Version
they reeled and staggered like drunkards, and were at their wits’ end.

New Heart English Bible
They reel back and forth, 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.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Give Thanks to the LORD, for He is Good
26They mounted up to the heavens, then sunk to the depths; their courage melted in their anguish. 27They reeled and staggered like drunkards, and all their skill was useless. 28Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress.…

Cross References
Job 12:25
They grope in the darkness without 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 staggers like a drunkard and sways like a shack. Earth's rebellion weighs it down, and it falls, never to rise again.


Treasury of Scripture

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

stagger

Job 12:24
He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.

Isaiah 19:14
The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.

Isaiah 29:9
Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

are at their wit's end.

Job 37:20
Shall it be told him that I speak? if a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up.

Isaiah 19:3
And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.

Acts 27:15-20
And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive…

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Psalm 107
1. The psalmist exhorts the redeemed in praising God to observe his manifold providence
4. Over travelers
10. Over captives
17. Over sick men
23. Over sailors
33. And in diverse varieties of life.














(27) Reel to and fro.--Or more exactly, spin round and round.

Are at their wit's end.--An admirable paraphrase of the Hebrew, "all their wisdom swalloweth itself up." The poet, from the expressions employed, is possibly writing under the influence of Psalm 22:14; but he has evidently himself been to sea and experienced the dangers and discomforts he so graphically describes. Ovid (Trist. i. 2) has been quoted in illustration:

"Me miserum, quanti montes volvuntur aquarum

Jamjam tacturos sidera summa putes.

Quantae diducto subsidunt aequore valles:

Jamjam tacturas Tartura nigra putes

Rector in incerto est, nec quid fugiatve petatve

Invenit: ambiguis ars stupet ipsa malis."

See on this passage Addison in Spectator, No. 489.

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.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
They reeled
יָח֣וֹגּוּ (yā·ḥō·w·gū)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 2287: To make a pilgrimage, keep a pilgrim feast

and staggered
וְ֭יָנוּעוּ (wə·yā·nū·‘ū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 5128: To quiver, wave, waver, tremble, totter

like drunkards,
כַּשִּׁכּ֑וֹר (kaš·šik·kō·wr)
Preposition-k, Article | Adjective - masculine singular
Strong's 7910: Intoxicated, as a, state, a habit

and all
וְכָל־ (wə·ḵāl)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

their skill
חָ֝כְמָתָ֗ם (ḥā·ḵə·mā·ṯām)
Noun - feminine singular construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 2451: Wisdom

was useless.
תִּתְבַּלָּֽע׃ (tiṯ·bal·lā‘)
Verb - Hitpael - Imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 1104: To swallow down, swallow up, engulf


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OT Poetry: Psalm 107:27 They reel back and forth and stagger (Psalm Ps Psa.)
Psalm 107:26
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