Discovery BoxPsalms 144:3-6 
Context144:3 O Lord, of what importance is the human race, 1 that you should notice them?
Of what importance is mankind, 2 that you should be concerned about them? 3
144:4 People 4 are like a vapor,
their days like a shadow that disappears. 5
144:5 O Lord, make the sky sink 6 and come down! 7
Touch the mountains and make them smolder! 8
144:6 Hurl lightning bolts and scatter them!
Shoot your arrows and rout them! 9
1 tn Heb “What is mankind?” The singular noun אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh) is used here in a collective sense and refers to the human race. See Ps 8:5.
2 tn Heb “and the son of man.” The phrase “son of man” is used here in a collective sense and refers to human beings. For other uses of the phrase in a collective or representative manner, see Num 23:19; Ps 146:3; Isa 51:12.
3 tn Heb “take account of him.” The two imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 describe God’s characteristic activity.
4 tn Heb “man,” or “mankind.”
5 tn Heb “his days [are] like a shadow that passes away,” that is, like a late afternoon shadow made by the descending sun that will soon be swallowed up by complete darkness. See Ps 102:11.
6 tn The Hebrew verb נָטָה (natah) can carry the sense “to [cause to] bend; to [cause to] bow down.” For example, Gen 49:15 pictures Issachar as a donkey that “bends” its shoulder or back under a burden. Here the
7 tn Heb “so you might come down.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The same type of construction is utilized in v. 6.
8 tn Heb “so they might smolder.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative.
9 sn Arrows and lightning bolts are associated in other texts (see Pss 18:14; 77:17-18; Zech 9:14), as well as in ancient Near Eastern art (see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” [Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983], 187).
