Discovery BoxPsalms 44:23-24 
Context44:23 Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord?
Wake up! 1 Do not reject us forever!
44:24 Why do you look the other way, 2
and ignore 3 the way we are oppressed and mistreated? 4
Psalms 80:12
Context80:12 Why did you break down its walls, 5
so that all who pass by pluck its fruit? 6
Psalms 88:14
Context88:14 O Lord, why do you reject me,
and pay no attention to me? 7
Psalms 89:47
Context89:47 Take note of my brief lifespan! 8
Why do you make all people so mortal? 9
Psalms 114:6
Context114:6 Why do you skip like rams, O mountains,
like lambs, O hills?
2 tn Heb “Why do you hide your face?” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).
3 tn Or “forget.”
4 tn Heb “our oppression and our affliction.”
5 sn The protective walls of the metaphorical vineyard are in view here (see Isa 5:5).
6 tn Heb “pluck it.”
7 tn Heb “[why] do you hide your face from me?”
8 tn Heb “remember me, what is [my] lifespan.” The Hebrew term חֶלֶד (kheled) is also used of one’s lifespan in Ps 39:5. Because the Hebrew text is so awkward here, some prefer to emend it to read מֶה חָדֵל אָנִי (meh khadel ’aniy, “[remember] how transient [that is, “short-lived”] I am”; see Ps 39:4).
9 tn Heb “For what emptiness do you create all the sons of mankind?” In this context the term שָׁוְא (shavah) refers to mankind’s mortal nature and the brevity of life (see vv. 45, 48).
