13:16 Show the Lord your God the respect that is due him. 1
Do it before he brings the darkness of disaster. 2
Do it before you stumble 3 into distress
like a traveler on the mountains at twilight. 4
Do it before he turns the light of deliverance you hope for
into the darkness and gloom of exile. 5
35:6 May their path be 6 dark and slippery,
as the Lord’s angel chases them!
73:18 Surely 7 you put them in slippery places;
you bring them down 8 to ruin.
4:19 The way of the wicked is like gloomy darkness; 9
they do not know what causes them to stumble. 10
1 tn Heb “Give glory/respect to the
2 tn The words “of disaster” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation to explain the significance of the metaphor to readers who may not be acquainted with the metaphorical use of light and darkness for salvation and joy and distress and sorrow respectively.
3 tn Heb “your feet stumble.”
4 tn Heb “you stumble on the mountains at twilight.” The added words are again supplied in the translation to help explain the metaphor to the uninitiated reader.
5 tn Heb “and while you hope for light he will turn it into deep darkness and make [it] into gloom.” The meaning of the metaphor is again explained through the addition of the “of” phrases for readers who are unacquainted with the metaphorical use of these terms.
6 tn The prefixed verbal form is distinctly jussive, indicating this is a prayer.
7 tn The use of the Hebrew term אַךְ (’akh, “surely”) here literarily counteracts its use in v. 13. The repetition draws attention to the contrast between the two statements, the first of which expresses the psalmist’s earlier despair and the second his newly discovered confidence.
8 tn Heb “cause them to fall.”
9 sn The simile describes ignorance or spiritual blindness, sinfulness, calamity, despair.
10 tn Heb “in what they stumble.”