¹ tn Or “show me favor.”

² tn Normally the verb בָּהַל (bahal) refers to an emotional response and means “tremble with fear, be terrified” (see vv. 3, 10). Perhaps here the “bones” are viewed as the seat of the psalmist’s emotions. However, the verb may describe one of the effects of his physical ailment, perhaps a fever. In Ezek 7:27 the verb describes how the hands of the people will shake with fear when they experience the horrors of divine judgment.

³ tn Heb “if I have done this.”

⁴ tn Heb “if there is injustice in my hands.” The “hands” figuratively suggest deeds or actions.

⁵ tn Heb “or else.”

⁶ tn Heb “or else.”

⁷ tn Heb “Errors who can discern?” This rhetorical question makes the point that perfect moral discernment is impossible to achieve. Consequently it is inevitable that even those with good intentions will sin on occasion.

⁸ tn Heb “declare me innocent from hidden [things],” i.e., sins. In this context (see the preceding line) “hidden” sins are not sins committed in secret, but sins which are not recognized as such by the psalmist.

⁹ tn Or perhaps, “are swollen.”

¹⁰ tn Cf. Ps 6:7, which has a similar line.

¹¹ tn Heb “my breath and my stomach [grow weak].” Apparently the verb in the previous line (“grow dim, be weakened”) is to be understood here. The Hebrew term נפשׁ can mean “life,” or, more specifically, “throat, breath.” The psalmist seems to be lamenting that his breathing is impaired because of the physical and emotional suffering he is forced to endure.

¹² tn Or “javelin.” On the meaning of this word, which occurs only here in the Hebrew Bible, see M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:210-11.

¹³ tn Heb “draw out spear and lance to meet.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “say to me,” or “say to my soul.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh from before your anger.” “Anger” here refers metonymically to divine judgment, which is the practical effect of God’s anger at the psalmist’s sin.

¹⁶ tn Heb “there is no health in my bones from before my sin.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “I am numb and crushed to excess.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “I roar because of the moaning of my heart.”

¹⁹ tn Or “rebuking.”

²⁰ tn Heb “and your burnt sacrifices before me continually.”

²¹ tn Or perhaps “raw”; Heb “burned; enflamed.”

²² tn Heb “my eyes fail from waiting for my God.” The psalmist has intently kept his eyes open, looking for God to intervene, but now his eyes are watery and bloodshot, impairing his vision.

²³ tn Heb “and until now I am declaring.”

²⁴ tn Or “woe to me.” The Hebrew term אוֹיָה (’oyah, “woe”) which occurs only here, is an alternate form of אוֹי (’oy).

²⁵ tn Heb “I live as a resident alien.”

²⁶ sn Meshech was located in central Anatolia (modern Turkey). Kedar was located in the desert to east-southeast of Israel. Because of the reference to Kedar, it is possible that Ps 120:5 refers to a different Meshech, perhaps one associated with the individual mentioned as a descendant of Aram in 1 Chr 1:17. (However, the LXX in 1 Chr 1:17 follows the parallel text in Gen 10:23, which reads “Mash,” not Meshech.) It is, of course, impossible that the psalmist could have been living in both the far north and the east at the same time. For this reason one must assume that he is recalling his experience as a wanderer among the nations or that he is using the geographical terms metaphorically and sarcastically to suggest that the enemies who surround him are like the barbarians who live in these distant regions. For a discussion of the problem, see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 146.

²⁷ tn Heb “too amazing [is this] knowledge for me, it is elevated, I cannot attain to it.”

²⁸ tn Heb “my eyes [are] toward you.”

²⁹ tn Heb “do not lay bare my life.” Only here is the Piel form of the verb collocated with the term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “life”). In Isa 53:12 the Lord’s servant “lays bare (the Hiphil form of the verb is used) his life to death.”