39:2 I was stone silent; 1
I held back the urge to speak. 2
My frustration grew; 3
77:4 You held my eyelids open; 4
I was troubled and could not speak. 5
1 tn Heb “I was mute [with] silence.”
2 tn Heb “I was quiet from good.” He kept quiet, resisting the urge to find emotional release and satisfaction by voicing his lament.
sn I held back the urge to speak. For a helpful discussion of the relationship (and tension) between silence and complaint in ancient Israelite lamentation, see E. S. Gerstenberger, Psalms, Part I (FOTL), 166-67.
3 tn Heb “and my pain was stirred up.” Emotional pain is in view here.
4 tn Heb “you held fast the guards of my eyes.” The “guards of the eyes” apparently refers to his eyelids. The psalmist seems to be saying that God would not bring him relief, which would have allowed him to shut his eyes and get some sleep (see v. 2).
5 tn The imperfect is used in the second clause to emphasize that this was an ongoing condition in the past.