1 Samuel 14:27

14:27 But Jonathan had not heard about the oath his father had made the army take. He extended the end of his staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb. When he ate it, ¹  his eyes gleamed. ² 

1 Samuel 14:29

14:29 Then Jonathan said, “My father has caused trouble for the land. See how my eyes gleamed ³  when I tasted just a little of this honey.

Job 33:30

33:30 to turn back his life from the place of corruption,

that he may be enlightened with the light of life.

Psalms 13:3

13:3 Look at me! ⁴  Answer me, O Lord my God!

Revive me, ⁵  or else I will die! ⁶ 

Psalms 34:5

34:5 Those who look to him for help are happy;

their faces are not ashamed. ⁷ 

¹ tn Heb “and he returned his hand to his mouth.”

² tc The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew mss in reading “gleamed,” rather than the Kethib, “saw.”

³ tc The LXX reads “saw.” See v. 27.

⁴ tn Heb “see.”

⁵ 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.

⁶ 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.”

⁷ 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.