Psalms Chapter 107 verse 27 Holy Bible
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, And are at their wits' end.
read chapter 107 in ASV
They are turned here and there, rolling like a man who is full of wine; and all their wisdom comes to nothing.
read chapter 107 in BBE
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and they are at their wits' end:
read chapter 107 in DARBY
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end.
read chapter 107 in KJV
read chapter 107 in WBT
They reel back and forth, and stagger like a drunken man, And are at their wits' end.
read chapter 107 in WEB
They reel to and fro, and move as a drunkard, And all their wisdom is swallowed up.
read chapter 107 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 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.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(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 aquarumJamjam tacturos sidera summa putes.Quantae diducto subsidunt aequore valles:Jamjam tacturas Tartura nigra putesRector in incerto est, nec quid fugiatve petatveInvenit: ambiguis ars stupet ipsa malis."See on this passage Addison in Spectator, No. 489.
