Text -- Psalms 13:1-4 (NET)

Psalm 13

13:1 For the music director; a psalm of David. How long, Lord, will you continue to ignore me? How long will you pay no attention to me? 13:2 How long must I worry, and suffer in broad daylight? How long will my enemy gloat over me? 13:3 Look at me! Answer me, O Lord my God! Revive me, or else I will die! 13:4 Then my enemy will say, “I have defeated him!” Then my foes will rejoice because I am upended.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 13:1

¹ sn Psalm 13. The psalmist, who is close to death, desperately pleads for God’s deliverance and affirms his trust in God’s faithfulness.

² tn Heb “will you forget me continually.”

³ tn Heb “will you hide your face from me.”

NET Notes: Psa 13:2

¹ tn Heb “How long will I put counsel in my being?”

² tn Heb “[with] grief in my heart by day.”

³ tn Heb “be exalted over me.” Perhaps one could translate, “How long will my enemy defeat me?”

NET Notes: Psa 13:3

¹ tn Heb “see.”

² tn Heb “Give light [to] my eyes.” The Hiphil of אוּר (’ur), when used elsewhere with “eyes” as object, refers to the law of God giving moral enlightenment (Ps 19:8), to God the creator giving literal eyesight to all people (Prov 29:13), and to God giving encouragement to his people (Ezra 9:8). Here the psalmist pictures himself as being on the verge of death. His eyes are falling shut and, if God does not intervene soon, he will “fall asleep” for good.

³ tn Heb “or else I will sleep [in?] the death.” Perhaps the statement is elliptical, “I will sleep [the sleep] of death,” or “I will sleep [with the sleepers in] death.”

NET Notes: Psa 13:4

¹ tn Heb “or else.”

² tn Heb “or else.”