Psalms 116:3

3. Sorrows of death Hebrew, Cords of death, in allusion to the use of “cords,” or ropes, for leading animals, binding prisoners, punishment by strangulation, etc., in all which the idea of abject and helpless submission is conveyed. See 1 Kings 20:31-32. Cords of death denote that the subject is condemned to die. See on Psalms 118:5. The verse is a quotation from Psalms 18:4-5.

Pains of hell Hebrew, straits of sheol, מצר , ( metzar,) radically means a compressed, narrow place, a strait, where a fugitive is easily captured, and figuratively, distress. The straits of sheol had shut him in; a proverbial phrase for the environments of death. The word occurs literally Lamentations 1:3, and figuratively Psalms 118:5. In the text it is parallel to “cords of death,” in previous member.