35:13 When they were sick, I wore sackcloth, 1
and refrained from eating food. 2
(If I am lying, may my prayers go unanswered!) 3
37:25 I was once young, now I am old.
I have never seen a godly man abandoned,
or his children 4 forced to search for food. 5
78:20 Yes, 6 he struck a rock and water flowed out,
streams gushed forth.
But can he also give us food?
Will he provide meat for his people?”
144:13 Our storehouses 7 will be full,
providing all kinds of food. 8
Our sheep will multiply by the thousands
and fill 9 our pastures. 10
1 tn Heb “as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth.” Sackcloth was worn by mourners. When the psalmist’s enemies were sick, he was sorry for their misfortune and mourned for them.
2 sn Fasting was also a practice of mourners. By refraining from normal activities, such as eating food, the mourner demonstrated the sincerity of his sorrow.
3 tn Heb “and my prayer upon my chest will return.” One could translate, “but my prayer was returning upon my chest,” but the use of the imperfect verbal form sets this line apart from the preceding and following lines (vv. 13a, 14), which use the perfect to describe the psalmist’s past actions.
4 tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”
5 tn Heb “or his offspring searching for food.” The expression “search for food” also appears in Lam 1:11, where Jerusalem’s refugees are forced to search for food and to trade their valuable possessions for something to eat.
6 tn Heb “look.”
7 tn The Hebrew noun occurs only here.
8 tn Heb “from kind to kind.” Some prefer to emend the text to מָזוֹן עַל מָזוֹן (mazon ’al mazon, “food upon food”).
9 tn Heb “they are innumerable.”
10 tn Heb “in outside places.” Here the term refers to pastures and fields (see Job 5:10; Prov 8:26).