By David.
26:1 Vindicate me, O Lord,
for I have integrity, 14
and I trust in the Lord without wavering.
26:2 Examine me, O Lord, and test me!
Evaluate my inner thoughts and motives! 15
26:3 For I am ever aware of your faithfulness, 16
and your loyalty continually motivates me. 17
1 tn Heb “then the
2 tn Heb “guard their way.”
3 tn Heb “by walking before me in faithfulness.”
4 tn Or “soul.”
5 tn Heb “saying.”
6 tn Heb “there will not be cut off from you a man from upon the throne of Israel.”
7 tn Heb “did.”
8 tn Heb “walked before.”
9 tn Heb “in faithfulness and in innocence and in uprightness of heart with you.”
10 tn Heb “and you have kept to him this great loyalty and you gave to him a son [who] sits on his throne as this day.”
11 sn Offering sacrifices at the high places. The “high places” were places of worship that were naturally or artificially elevated.
12 tn Heb “for the name of the
13 sn Psalm 26. The author invites the Lord to test his integrity, asserts his innocence and declares his loyalty to God.
14 tn Heb “for I in my integrity walk.”
15 tn Heb “evaluate my kidneys and my heart.” The kidneys and heart were viewed as the seat of one’s volition, conscience, and moral character.
16 tn Heb “for your faithfulness [is] before my eyes.”
17 tn Heb “and I walk about in your loyalty.”
18 tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.
19 tn Heb “and with a complete heart”; KJV, ASV “with a perfect heart.”
20 tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”
21 tn Heb “wept with great weeping”; NCV “cried loudly”; TEV “began to cry bitterly.”
22 tn Grk “Then Jesus said to them.”
23 tn Grk “Yet a little while the light is with you.”
24 sn The warning Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you operates on at least two different levels: (1) To the Jewish people in Jerusalem to whom Jesus spoke, the warning was a reminder that there was only a little time left for them to accept him as their Messiah. (2) To those later individuals to whom the Fourth Gospel was written, and to every person since, the words of Jesus are also a warning: There is a finite, limited time in which each individual has opportunity to respond to the Light of the world (i.e., Jesus); after that comes darkness. One’s response to the Light decisively determines one’s judgment for eternity.
25 tn The idiom “sons of light” means essentially “people characterized by light,” that is, “people of God.”
26 sn Cephas. This individual is generally identified with the Apostle Peter (L&N 93.211).
27 tn Here ἀναγκάζεις (anankazei") has been translated as a conative present (see ExSyn 534).