39:12 Hear my prayer, O Lord!
Listen to my cry for help!
Do not ignore my sobbing! 6
For I am dependent on you, like one residing outside his native land;
I am at your mercy, just as all my ancestors were. 7
119:19 I am like a foreigner in this land. 8
Do not hide your commands from me!
11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, being convinced of what we do not see.
1 tn Heb “the days of.”
2 tn Heb “sojournings.” Jacob uses a term that depicts him as one who has lived an unsettled life, temporarily residing in many different places.
3 tn Heb “the days of.”
4 tn The Hebrew word רַע (ra’) can sometimes mean “evil,” but that would give the wrong connotation here, where it refers to pain, difficulty, and sorrow. Jacob is thinking back through all the troubles he had to endure to get to this point.
5 tn Heb “and they have not reached the days of the years of my fathers in the days of their sojournings.”
6 tn Heb “do not be deaf to my tears.”
7 tn Heb “For a resident alien [am] I with you, a sojourner like all my fathers.”
8 tn Heb “I am a resident alien in the land.” Resident aliens were especially vulnerable and in need of help. They needed to know the social and legal customs of the land to avoid getting into trouble. The translation (note the addition of “like”) assumes the psalmist is speaking metaphorically, not literally.
9 tn Grk “the promises,” referring to the things God promised, not to the pledges themselves.
10 tn Or “sojourners.”
11 tn Grk “now.”
12 tn Grk “are all from one.”
13 tn Grk “for which reason.”
14 tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited). The context here also indicates both men and women are in view; note especially the collective τὰ παιδία (ta paidia) in v. 14.