90:8 You are aware of our sins; 1
you even know about our hidden sins. 2
90:9 Yes, 3 throughout all our days we experience your raging fury; 4
the years of our lives pass quickly, like a sigh. 5
1 tn Heb “you set our sins in front of you.”
2 tn Heb “what we have hidden to the light of your face.” God’s face is compared to a light or lamp that exposes the darkness around it.
3 tn Or “for.”
4 tn Heb “all our days pass by in your anger.”
5 tn Heb “we finish our years like a sigh.” In Ezek 2:10 the word הֶגֶה (hegeh) elsewhere refers to a grumbling or moaning sound. Here a brief sigh or moan is probably in view. If so, the simile pictures one’s lifetime as transient. Another option is that the simile alludes to the weakness that characteristically overtakes a person at the end of one’s lifetime. In this case the phrase could be translated, “we end our lives with a painful moan.”