Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 38:11

"My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague; And my kinsmen stand afar off." — Psalms 38:11 (ASV)

Sore is rather stroke, as in margin, or plague. His friends, looking on him as “one smitten of God,” and thinking “he must be wicked to deserve such pain,” abandon him as too vile for their society.

Kinsmen. —Render, rather, as in margin, neighbours, or near ones.

Those who should have been near me stand aloof.