3:53 They shut me 1 up in a pit
and threw stones at me.
3:54 The waters closed over my head;
I thought 2 I was about to die. 3
1 tn Heb “my life.”
2 tn Heb “I said,” meaning “I said to myself” = “I thought.”
3 tn Heb “I was about to be cut off.” The verb נִגְזָרְתִּי (nigzarti), Niphal perfect 1st person common singular from גָּזַר (gazar, “to be cut off”), functions in an ingressive sense: “about to be cut off.” It is used in reference to the threat of death (e.g., Ezek 37:11). To be “cut off” from the hand of the living means to experience death (Ps 88:6).