Discovery BoxPsalms 30:3 
Context30:3 O Lord, you pulled me 1 up from Sheol;
you rescued me from among those descending into the grave. 2
Psalms 30:9
Context30:9 “What 3 profit is there in taking my life, 4
in my descending into the Pit? 5
Can the dust of the grave 6 praise you?
Can it declare your loyalty? 7
1 tn Or “my life.”
2 tn Heb “you kept me alive from those descending into the pit.” The Hebrew noun בוֹר (bor, “pit, cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead. The translation follows the consonantal Hebrew text (Kethib); the marginal reading (Qere) has, “you kept me alive so that I did not go down into the pit.”
3 sn The following two verses (vv. 9-10) contain the prayer (or an excerpt of the prayer) that the psalmist offered to the Lord during his crisis.
4 tn Heb “What profit [is there] in my blood?” “Blood” here represents his life.
5 tn The Hebrew term שָׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 16:10; 49:9; 55:24; 103:4).
6 tn Heb “dust.” The words “of the grave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
7 tn The rhetorical questions anticipate the answer, “Of course not!”
sn According to the OT, those who descend into the realm of death/Sheol are cut off from God’s mighty deeds and from the worshiping covenant community that experiences divine intervention (Pss 6:5; 88:10-12; Isa 38:18). In his effort to elicit a positive divine response, the psalmist reminds God that he will receive no praise or glory if he allows the psalmist to die. Dead men do not praise God!
