50:13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls?
Do I drink the blood of goats? 1
59:15 They wander around looking for something to eat;
they refuse to sleep until they are full. 2
78:24 He rained down manna for them to eat;
he gave them the grain of heaven. 3
78:25 Man ate the food of the mighty ones. 4
He sent them more than enough to eat. 5
102:4 My heart is parched 6 and withered like grass,
for I am unable 7 to eat food. 8
102:9 For I eat ashes as if they were bread, 9
and mix my drink with my tears, 10
128:2 You 11 will eat what you worked so hard to grow. 12
You will be blessed and secure. 13
1 tn The rhetorical questions assume an emphatic negative response, “Of course not!”
2 tn Heb “if they are not full, they stay through the night.”
3 sn Manna was apparently shaped like a seed (Exod 16:31), perhaps explaining why it is here compared to grain.
4 sn Because of the reference to “heaven” in the preceding verse, it is likely that mighty ones refers here to the angels of heaven. The LXX translates “angels” here, as do a number of modern translations (NEB, NIV, NRSV).
5 tn Heb “provision he sent to them to satisfaction.”
6 tn Heb “struck, attacked.”
7 tn Heb “I forget.”
8 sn I am unable to eat food. During his time of mourning, the psalmist refrained from eating. In the following verse he describes metaphorically the physical effects of fasting.
9 sn Mourners would sometimes put ashes on their head or roll in ashes as a sign of mourning (see 2 Sam 13:19; Job 2:8; Isa 58:5).
10 tn Heb “weeping.”
11 tn The psalmist addresses the representative God-fearing man, as indicated by the references to “your wife” (v. 3) and “the man” (v. 4), as well as the second masculine singular pronominal and verbal forms in vv. 2-6.
12 tn Heb “the work of your hands, indeed you will eat.”
13 tn Heb “how blessed you [will be] and it will be good for you.”