So that my soul chooseth strangling, [and] death rather than my life.
Ver. 15. So that my soul chooseth strangling] i.e. Quamvis durissimam sed praesentissimam mortem, any violent or ignominious death, as long as it were a speedy death. Hippocrates telleth us, that many have been so frightened with dreams and apparitions, that they have hanged themselves, leaped into deep pits, or otherwise committed suicide. Let those that either have not been so terrified, or so tempted, or so deserted of God, bless him for that mercy.
And death rather than life] Heb. Rather than my bones; that is, any kind of death rather than such a body, which is now nothing else but a bag of bones; or than such rotten bones full of sores and ulcers. He maketh mention of his bones, because his pain had pierced as far as his very bones; the putrefaction had sunk down into his marrow.