38:7 For I am overcome with shame 1
and my whole body is sick. 2
44:15 All day long I feel humiliated 3
and am overwhelmed with shame, 4
83:16 Cover 5 their faces with shame,
so they might seek 6 you, 7 O Lord.
83:17 May they be humiliated and continually terrified! 8
May they die in shame! 9
89:45 You have cut short his youth, 10
and have covered him with shame. (Selah)
1 tn Heb “for my loins are filled with shame.” The “loins” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s emotions. The present translation assumes that נִקְלֶה (niqleh) is derived from קָלָה (qalah, “be dishonored”). Some derive it instead from a homonymic root קָלָה (qalah), meaning “to roast.” In this case one might translate “fever” (cf. NEB “my loins burn with fever”).
2 tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh” (see v. 3).
3 tn Heb “all the day my humiliation [is] in front of me.”
4 tn Heb “and the shame of my face covers me.”
5 tn Heb “fill.”
6 tn After the preceding imperative, the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose or result (“then they will seek”).
7 tn Heb “your name,” which stands here for God’s person.
8 tn Heb “and may they be terrified to perpetuity.” The Hebrew expression עֲדֵי־עַד (’adey-’ad, “to perpetuity”) can mean “forevermore” (see Pss 92:7; 132:12, 14), but here it may be used hyperbolically, for the psalmist asks that the experience of judgment might lead the nations to recognize (v. 18) and even to seek (v. 16) God.
9 tn Heb “may they be ashamed and perish.” The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist concludes his prayer with an imprecation, calling severe judgment down on his enemies. The strong language of the imprecation seems to run contrary to the positive outcome of divine judgment envisioned in v. 16b. Perhaps the language of v. 17 is overstated for effect. Another option is that v. 16b expresses an ideal, while the strong imprecation of vv. 17-18 anticipates reality. It would be nice if the defeated nations actually pursued a relationship with God, but if judgment does not bring them to that point, the psalmist asks that they be annihilated so that they might at least be forced to acknowledge God’s power.
10 tn Heb “the days of his youth” (see as well Job 33:25).