Psalms 34:5

Those who look to him for help are happy; their faces are not ashamed. ¹ 

Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces will never be ashamed.

Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces.

Look at him; give him your warmest smile. Never hide your feelings from him.

Let your eyes be turned to him and you will have light, and your faces will not be shamed.

Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed.

They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed.

Those who look to him for help are happy; their faces are not ashamed. ¹ 

¹ tc Heb “they look to him and are radiant and their faces are not ashamed.” The third person plural subject (“they”) is unidentified; there is no antecedent in the Hebrew text. For this reason some prefer to take the perfect verbal forms in the first line as imperatives, “look to him and be radiant” (cf. NEB, NRSV). Some medieval Hebrew mss and other ancient witnesses (Aquila, the Syriac, and Jerome) support an imperatival reading for the first verb. In the second line some (with support from the LXX and Syriac) change “their faces” to “your faces,” which allows one to retain more easily the jussive force of the verb (suggested by the preceding אַל [’al]): “do not let your faces be ashamed.” It is probable that the verbal construction in the second line is rhetorical, expressing the conviction that the action in view cannot or should not happen. See GKC 322 §109.e.