6:6 I am exhausted as I groan;
all night long I drench my bed in tears; 1
my tears saturate the cushion beneath me. 2
25:5 Guide me into your truth 3 and teach me.
For you are the God who delivers me;
on you I rely all day long.
35:17 O Lord, how long are you going to just stand there and watch this? 4
Rescue 5 me 6 from their destructive attacks;
guard my life 7 from the young lions!
38:12 Those who seek my life try to entrap me; 8
those who want to harm me speak destructive words;
all day long they say deceitful things.
Book 2
(Psalms 42-72)
For the music director; a well-written song 10 by the Korahites.
42:1 As a deer 11 longs 12 for streams of water,
so I long 13 for you, O God!
42:10 My enemies’ taunts cut into me to the bone, 14
as they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” 15
55:19 God, the one who has reigned as king from long ago,
will hear and humiliate them. 16 (Selah)
They refuse to change,
and do not fear God. 17
62:3 How long will you threaten 18 a man?
All of you are murderers, 19
as dangerous as a leaning wall or an unstable fence. 20
71:24 All day long my tongue will also tell about your justice,
for those who want to harm me 21 will be embarrassed and ashamed. 22
72:15 May he live! 23 May they offer him gold from Sheba! 24
May they continually pray for him!
May they pronounce blessings on him all day long! 25
84:5 How blessed are those who 26 find their strength in you,
and long to travel the roads that lead to your temple! 27
88:9 My eyes grow weak because of oppression.
I call out to you, O Lord, all day long;
I spread out my hands in prayer to you. 28
143:8 May I hear about your loyal love in the morning, 29
for I trust in you.
Show me the way I should go, 30
because I long for you. 31
1 tn Heb “I cause to swim through all the night my bed.”
2 tn Heb “with my tears my bed I flood/melt.”
3 sn The
4 tn Heb “O Lord, how long will you see?”
5 tn Heb “bring back, restore.”
6 tn Or “my life.”
7 tn Heb “my only one.” The psalmist may mean that his life is precious, or that he feels isolated and alone (see Ps 22:20). The verb “guard” is supplied in the translation, because the verb “rescue” is understood by ellipsis (see the previous line).
8 tn Heb “lay snares.”
9 sn Psalm 42. The psalmist recalls how he once worshiped in the Lord’s temple, but laments that he is now oppressed by enemies in a foreign land. Some medieval Hebrew
10 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.
11 tn Since the accompanying verb is feminine in form, the noun אָיִּל (’ayyil, “male deer”) should be emended to אַיֶּלֶת (’ayyelet, “female deer”). Haplography of the letter tav has occurred; note that the following verb begins with tav.
12 tn Or “pants [with thirst].”
13 tn Or “my soul pants [with thirst].” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).
14 tc Heb “with a shattering in my bones my enemies taunt me.” A few medieval Hebrew
15 sn “Where is your God?” The enemies ask this same question in v. 3.
16 tc Heb “God will hear and answer them, even [the] one who sits [from] ancient times.” The prefixed verbal from with vav (ו) consecutive carries on the anticipatory force of the preceding imperfect. The verb appears to be a Qal form from עָנָה (’anah, “to answer”). If this reading is retained, the point would be that God “answered” them in judgment. The translation assumes an emendation to the Piel וַיְעַנֵּם (vay’annem; see 2 Kgs 17:20) and understands the root as עָנָה (’anah, “to afflict”; see also 1 Kgs 8:35).
17 tn Heb “[the ones] for whom there are no changes, and they do not fear God.”
18 tn The verb form is plural; the psalmist addresses his enemies. The verb הוּת occurs only here in the OT. An Arabic cognate means “shout at.”
19 tn The Hebrew text has a Pual (passive) form, but the verb form should be vocalized as a Piel (active) form. See BDB 953-54 s.v. רָצַח.
20 tn Heb “like a bent wall and a broken fence.” The point of the comparison is not entirely clear. Perhaps the enemies are depicted as dangerous, like a leaning wall or broken fence that is in danger of falling on someone (see C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms [ICC], 2:69).
21 tn Heb “those who seek my harm.”
22 tn Heb “will have become embarrassed and ashamed.” The perfect verbal forms function here as future perfects, indicating future actions which will precede chronologically the action expressed by the main verb in the preceding line.
23 tn The prefixed verbal form is jussive, not imperfect. Because the form has the prefixed vav (ו), some subordinate it to what precedes as a purpose/result clause. In this case the representative poor individual might be the subject of this and the following verb, “so that he may live and give to him gold of Sheba.” But the idea of the poor offering gold is incongruous. It is better to take the jussive as a prayer with the king as subject of the verb. (Perhaps the initial vav is dittographic; note the vav at the end of the last form in v. 14.) The statement is probably an abbreviated version of the formula יְחִי הַמֶּלֶךְ (yÿkhiy hammelekh, “may the king live”; see 1 Sam 10:24; 2 Sam 16:16; 1 Kgs 1:25, 34, 39; 2 Kgs 11:12).
24 tn Heb “and he will give to him some gold of Sheba.” The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive with a grammatically indefinite subject (“and may one give”). Of course, the king’s subjects, mentioned in the preceding context, are the tribute bearers in view here.
25 tn As in the preceding line, the prefixed verbal forms are understood as jussives with a grammatically indefinite subject (“and may one pray…and may one bless”). Of course, the king’s subjects, mentioned in the preceding context, are in view here.
26 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle stated here was certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the plural “those.” The individual referred to in v. 5a is representative of followers of God, as the use of plural forms in vv. 5b-7 indicates.
27 tn Heb “roads [are] in their heart[s].” The roads are here those that lead to Zion (see v. 7).
28 tn Heb “I spread out my hands to you.” Spreading out the hands toward God was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). The words “in prayer” have been supplied in the translation to clarify this.
29 tn Heb “cause me to hear in the morning your loyal love.” Here “loyal love” probably stands metonymically for an oracle of assurance promising God’s intervention as an expression of his loyal love.
sn The morning is sometimes viewed as the time of divine intervention (see Pss 30:5; 59:16; 90:14).
30 sn The way probably refers here to God’s moral and ethical standards and requirements (see v. 10).
31 tn Heb “for to you I lift up my life.” The Hebrew expression נָאָשׂ נֶפֶשׁ (na’as nefesh, “to lift up [one’s] life”) means “to desire; to long for” (see Deut 24:15; Prov 19:18; Jer 22:27; 44:14; Hos 4:8, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 16).