Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

PSALMS 107:5KJV
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Psalms 107:5 (KJV)

What does Psalms 107:5 mean?

Psalms 107:5 describes travelers whose strength was failing because they had no food or water. Their need was urgent: the journey had brought them to a point where they could no longer sustain themselves.

The psalm’s speaker describes them as a group, after verse 4 pictures them wandering in a desert without finding a city to live in. The phrase “their soul fainted in them” brings the account close to their experience: they were exhausted deep within.

The Hebrew behind Psalms 107:5

  • “soul” — נֶפֶשׁ (nephesh): This word can refer to a person’s life or whole being. Here it helps show that the KJV’s “soul” describes the travelers themselves, not merely a part of them separate from their bodies.
  • “fainted” — עָטַף (ʿataf): This word can carry the sense of growing weak or overwhelmed. Here it pictures their strength ebbing away under the strain of hunger and thirst.

Why Psalms 107:5 matters

  • The verse makes the travelers’ need more than a question of finding the right road. “Hungry and thirsty” shows why reaching a place to live had become so urgent.
  • The travelers’ weakness sets the scene for their cry to God in verse 6. Their request comes at a moment when their own strength is failing.

Where else these words appear

“thirsty” Hebrew H6771 · used in 9 verses

  • Deuteronomy 29:19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
  • Proverbs 25:21 If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
  • Isaiah 32:6 For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

“fainted” Hebrew H5848 · used in 15 verses

  • Genesis 30:42 But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.
  • Psalms 73:6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
  • Isaiah 57:16 For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.

“Hungry” Hebrew H7457 · used in 22 verses

  • 1 Samuel 2:5 They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.
  • Psalms 107:9 For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
  • Isaiah 29:8 It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.