119:38 Confirm to your servant your promise, 1
which you made to the one who honors you. 2
38:11 Because of my condition, 3 even my friends and acquaintances keep their distance; 4
my neighbors stand far away. 5
66:16 Come! Listen, all you who are loyal to God! 6
I will declare what he has done for me.
141:5 May the godly strike me in love and correct me!
May my head not refuse 7 choice oil! 8
Indeed, my prayer is a witness against their evil deeds. 9
1 tn Heb “word.”
2 tn Heb “which [is] for your fear,” that is, the promise made to those who exhibit fear of God.
3 tn Or “wound,” or “illness.”
4 tn Heb “stand [aloof].”
5 tn Heb “and the ones near me off at a distance stand.”
5 tn Heb “all of the fearers of God.”
7 tn The form יָנִי (yaniy) appears to be derived from the verbal root נוּא (nu’). Another option is to emend the form to יְנָא (yÿna’), a Piel from נָאָה (na’ah), and translate “may choice oil not adorn my head” (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 271). In this case, choice oil, like delicacies in v. 4, symbolize the pleasures of sin.
8 sn May my head not refuse choice oil. The psalmist compares the constructive criticism of the godly (see the previous line) to having refreshing olive oil poured over one’s head.
9 tc Heb “for still, and my prayer [is] against their evil deeds.” The syntax of the Hebrew text is difficult; the sequence -כִּי־עוֹד וּ (kiy-’od u-, “for still and”) occurs only here. The translation assumes an emendation to כִּי עֵד תְפלָּתִי (“indeed a witness [is] my prayer”). The psalmist’s lament about the evil actions of sinful men (see v. 4) testifies against the wicked in the divine court.