Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageLike the earth broken open and turned by the plough, our bones are strewn at the very entrance of Sheol.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GAs one who ploughs and splits open the earth, so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of Sheol.
KJV
King James VersionOur bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleAs when one plows and breaks up the soil, so our bones have been scattered at the mouth of Sheol.
Footnotes
The two Hebrew verbs *poleach* (פֹלֵחַ) and *voqea'* (בֹּקֵעַ)—ploughing and cleaving/splitting—both describe violent, irreversible breaking of the earth's surface. Applied to human bones, the image is brutally visceral: the community's dead lie scattered like clods of turned soil. *Sheol* (שְׁאוֹל) is the Hebrew realm of the dead—not a place of punishment but of shadowy, diminished existence beneath the earth. The abrupt shift to 'our bones'—from the individual 'I' of surrounding verses—opens the lament suddenly to communal catastrophe. FOG foregrounds the agricultural violence of the imagery; FOG Message softens slightly to 'broken open and turned' to allow the theological gravity of the Sheol reference to dominate.