Discovery BoxPsalms 42:9 
Context42:9 I will pray 1 to God, my high ridge: 2
“Why do you ignore 3 me?
Why must I walk around mourning 4
because my enemies oppress me?”
Psalms 42:11
Context42:11 Why are you depressed, 5 O my soul? 6
Why are you upset? 7
Wait for God!
For I will again give thanks
to my God for his saving intervention. 8
1 tn The cohortative form indicates the psalmist’s resolve.
2 tn This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28; Pss 18:2; 31:3.
3 tn Or “forget.”
4 sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar idea.
5 tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”
6 sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.
7 tn Heb “and why are you in turmoil upon me?”
8 tc Heb “for again I will give him thanks, the saving acts of my face and my God.” The last line should be emended to read יְשׁוּעֹת פְנֵי אֱלֹהָי (yÿshu’ot fÿney ’elohay, “[for] the saving acts of the face of my God”), that is, the saving acts associated with God’s presence/intervention. This refrain is almost identical to the one in v. 5. See also Ps 43:5.
