Deuteronomy 32:20

32:20 He said, “I will reject them,

I will see what will happen to them;

for they are a perverse generation,

children who show no loyalty.

Job 13:24

13:24 Why do you hide your face

and regard me as your enemy?

Psalms 27:9

27:9 Do not reject me!

Do not push your servant away in anger!

You are my deliverer!

Do not forsake or abandon me,

O God who vindicates me!

Psalms 30:7

30:7 O Lord, in your good favor you made me secure.

Then you rejected me and I was terrified.

Psalms 89:46

89:46 How long, O Lord, will this last?

Will you remain hidden forever?

Will your anger continue to burn like fire?

Psalms 104:29

104:29 When you ignore them, they panic.

When you take away their life’s breath, they die

and return to dust.

Isaiah 8:17

8:17 I will wait patiently for the Lord,

who has rejected the family of Jacob; 10 

I will wait for him.

Isaiah 64:7

64:7 No one invokes 11  your name,

or makes an effort 12  to take hold of you.

For you have rejected us 13 

and handed us over to our own sins. 14 

Ezekiel 39:23-24

39:23 The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile due to their iniquity, 15  for they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies; all of them died by the sword. 39:24 According to their uncleanness and rebellion I have dealt with them, and I hid my face from them.

Ezekiel 39:29

39:29 I will no longer hide my face from them, when I pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, 16  declares the sovereign Lord.”


tn Heb “I will hide my face from them.”

tn Heb “sons” (so NAB, NASB); TEV “unfaithful people.”

sn The anthropomorphism of “hide the face” indicates a withdrawal of favor and an outpouring of wrath (see Ps 30:7 [8]; Isa 54:8; Ps 27:9). Sometimes God “hides his face” to make himself invisible or aloof (see 34:29). In either case, if God covers his face it is because he considers Job an enemy – at least this is what Job thinks.

tn Heb “do not hide your face from me.” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).

tn Or “[source of] help.”

tn Heb “in your good favor you caused to stand for my mountain strength.” Apparently this means “you established strength for my mountain” (“mountain” in this case representing his rule, which would be centered on Mt. Zion) or “you established strength as my mountain” (“mountain” in this case being a metaphor for security).

tn Heb “you hid your face.” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or, as here, carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Ps 88:14).

tn Heb “How long, O Lord, will hide yourself forever?”

tn Heb “you hide your face, they are terrified.”

10 tn Heb “who hides his face from the house of Jacob.”

11 tn Or “calls out in”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “calls on.”

12 tn Or “rouses himself”; NASB “arouses himself.”

13 tn Heb “for you have hidden your face from us.”

14 tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and you caused us to melt in the hand of our sin.” The verb וַתְּמוּגֵנוּ (vattÿmugenu) is a Qal preterite 2nd person masculine singular with a 1st person common plural suffix from the root מוּג (mug, “melt”). However, elsewhere the Qal of this verb is intransitive. If the verbal root מוּג (mug) is retained here, the form should be emended to a Polel pattern (וַתְּמֹגְגֵנוּ, vattÿmogÿgenu). The translation assumes an emendation to וַתְּמַגְּנֵנוּ (vattÿmaggÿnenu, “and you handed us over”). This form is a Piel preterite 2nd person masculine singular with a 1st person common plural suffix from the verbal root מִגֵּן (miggen, “hand over, surrender”; see HALOT 545 s.v. מגן and BDB 171 s.v. מָגָן). The point is that God has abandoned them to their sinful ways and no longer seeks reconciliation.

15 tn Or “in their punishment.” The phrase “in/for [a person’s] iniquity/punishment” occurs fourteen times in Ezekiel: here; 3:18, 19; 4:17; 7:13, 16; 18: 17, 18, 19, 20; 24:23; 33:6, 8, 9. The Hebrew word for “iniquity” may also mean the “punishment” for iniquity or “guilt” of iniquity.

16 sn See Ezek 11:19; 37:14.