Discovery BoxPsalms 39:2 
ContextI held back the urge to speak. 2
My frustration grew; 3
Psalms 39:9
Context39:9 I am silent and cannot open my mouth
because of what you have done. 4
Psalms 76:8
Context76:8 From heaven you announced what their punishment would be. 5
The earth 6 was afraid and silent
1 tn Heb “I was mute [with] silence.”
2 tn Heb “I was quiet from good.” He kept quiet, resisting the urge to find emotional release and satisfaction by voicing his lament.
sn I held back the urge to speak. For a helpful discussion of the relationship (and tension) between silence and complaint in ancient Israelite lamentation, see E. S. Gerstenberger, Psalms, Part I (FOTL), 166-67.
3 tn Heb “and my pain was stirred up.” Emotional pain is in view here.
4 tn Heb “because you acted.” The psalmist has in mind God’s disciplinary measures (see vv. 10-13).
5 tn Heb “a [legal] decision,” or “sentence.”
6 tn “The earth” stands here by metonymy for its inhabitants.
