90:10 The days of our lives add up to seventy years, 7
or eighty, if one is especially strong. 8
But even one’s best years are marred by trouble and oppression. 9
Yes, 10 they pass quickly 11 and we fly away. 12
90:12 So teach us to consider our mortality, 13
so that we might live wisely. 14
119:84 How long must your servant endure this? 15
When will you judge those who pursue me?
1 tn Heb “How many are the days of the years of your life?”
2 tn Heb “the days of.”
3 tn Heb “sojournings.” Jacob uses a term that depicts him as one who has lived an unsettled life, temporarily residing in many different places.
4 tn Heb “the days of.”
5 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.
6 tn Heb “and they have not reached the days of the years of my fathers in the days of their sojournings.”
7 tn Heb “the days of our years, in them [are] seventy years.”
8 tn Heb “or if [there is] strength, eighty years.”
9 tn Heb “and their pride [is] destruction and wickedness.” The Hebrew noun רֹהַב (rohav) occurs only here. BDB 923 s.v. assigns the meaning “pride,” deriving the noun from the verbal root רהב (“to act stormily [boisterously, arrogantly]”). Here the “pride” of one’s days (see v. 9) probably refers to one’s most productive years in the prime of life. The words translated “destruction and wickedness” are also paired in Ps 10:7. They also appear in proximity in Pss 7:14 and 55:10. The oppressive and abusive actions of evil men are probably in view (see Job 4:8; 5:6; 15:35; Isa 10:1; 59:4).
10 tn or “for.”
11 tn Heb “it passes quickly.” The subject of the verb is probably “their pride” (see the preceding line). The verb גּוּז (guz) means “to pass” here; it occurs only here and in Num 11:31.
12 sn We fly away. The psalmist compares life to a bird that quickly flies off (see Job 20:8).
13 tn Heb “to number our days,” that is, to be aware of how few they really are.
14 tn Heb “and we will bring a heart of wisdom.” After the imperative of the preceding line, the prefixed verbal form with the conjunction indicates purpose/result. The Hebrew term “heart” here refers to the center of one’s thoughts, volition, and moral character.
15 tn Heb “How long are the days of your servant?”