I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. So Israel from the days of her youth as a nation (Psalms 129:1; Hosea 2:15; Hosea 11:1). As Israel's existence in her youth in Egypt was threatened by Pharaoh, so the antitype, Messiah, born in a stable, was threatened by Herod's malice, and throughout life was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs." When a great affliction befals us, we cannot regard it as standing alone; we look upon it as the last step of a ladder, which we begin to ascend as soon as we come into the world. So in the (German) funeral hymn-`In every year from tender youth, I have learned how hard's the road to heaven' (Hengstenberg).
While I suffer thy terrors - `horrors of stupefaction' (Gesenius).