119:74 Your loyal followers will be glad when they see me, 1
for I find hope in your word.
119:92 If I had not found encouragement in your law, 2
I would have died in my sorrow. 3
119:174 I long for your deliverance, O Lord;
I find delight in your law.
19:8 The Lord’s precepts are fair 4
and make one joyful. 5
The Lord’s commands 6 are pure 7
and give insight for life. 8
15:16 As your words came to me I drank them in, 9
and they filled my heart with joy and happiness
because I belong to you. 10
15:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for 11 these people, I would not feel pity for them! 12 Get them away from me! Tell them to go away! 13
1 tn Heb “those who fear you will see me and rejoice.”
2 tn Heb “if your law had not been my delight.”
3 tn Or “my suffering.”
4 tn Or “just.” Perhaps the idea is that they impart a knowledge of what is just and right.
5 tn Heb “[they] make happy [the] heart.” Perhaps the point is that they bring a sense of joyful satisfaction to the one who knows and keeps them, for those who obey God’s law are richly rewarded. See v. 11b.
6 tn Heb “command.” The singular here refers to the law as a whole.
7 tn Because they reflect God’s character, his commands provide a code of moral and ethical purity.
8 tn Heb [they] enlighten [the] eyes.
9 sn Heb “Your words were found and I ate them.” This along with Ezek 2:8–3:3 is a poetic picture of inspiration. The prophet accepted them, assimilated them, and made them such a part of himself that he spoke with complete assurance what he knew were God’s words.
10 tn Heb “Your name is called upon me.”
11 tn The words “pleading for” have been supplied in the translation to explain the idiom (a metonymy). For parallel usage see BDB 763 s.v. עָמַד Qal.1.a and compare usage in Gen 19:27, Deut 4:10.
12 tn Heb “my soul would not be toward them.” For the usage of “soul” presupposed here see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 6 in the light of the complaints and petitions in Jeremiah’s prayer in 14:19, 21.
13 tn Heb “Send them away from my presence and let them go away.”
14 tn Heb “be afraid of them.” The antecedent is the “whomever” in v. 7.
15 tn Heb “rescue.”