For the music director; a psalm of David.
13:1 How long, Lord, will you continue to ignore me? 2
How long will you pay no attention to me? 3
13:2 How long must I worry, 4
and suffer in broad daylight? 5
How long will my enemy gloat over me? 6
32:3 When I refused to confess my sin, 7
my whole body wasted away, 8
while I groaned in pain all day long.
38:6 I am dazed 9 and completely humiliated; 10
all day long I walk around mourning.
43:2 For you are the God who shelters me. 11
Why do you reject me? 12
Why must I walk around 13 mourning 14
because my enemies oppress me?
102:9 For I eat ashes as if they were bread, 15
and mix my drink with my tears, 16
102:10 because of your anger and raging fury.
Indeed, 17 you pick me up and throw me away.
38:14 Like a swallow or a thrush I chirp,
I coo 18 like a dove;
my eyes grow tired from looking up to the sky. 19
O sovereign master, 20 I am oppressed;
help me! 21
1 sn Psalm 13. The psalmist, who is close to death, desperately pleads for God’s deliverance and affirms his trust in God’s faithfulness.
2 tn Heb “will you forget me continually.”
3 tn Heb “will you hide your face from me.”
4 tn Heb “How long will I put counsel in my being?”
5 tn Heb “[with] grief in my heart by day.”
6 tn Heb “be exalted over me.” Perhaps one could translate, “How long will my enemy defeat me?”
7 tn Heb “when I was silent.”
8 tn Heb “my bones became brittle.” The psalmist pictures himself as aging and growing physically weak. Trying to cover up his sin brought severe physical consequences.
9 tn The verb’s precise shade of meaning in this context is not entirely clear. The verb, which literally means “to bend,” may refer to the psalmist’s posture. In Isa 21:3 it seems to mean “be confused, dazed.”
10 tn Heb “I am bowed down to excess.”
11 tn Heb “God of my place of refuge,” that is, “God who is my place of refuge.” See Ps 31:4.
12 tn The question is similar to that of Ps 42:9, but זָנַח (zanakh, “reject”) is a stronger verb than שָׁכַח (shakhakh, “forget”).
13 tn The language is similar to that of Ps 42:9, but the Hitpael form of the verb הָלַךְ (halakh; as opposed to the Qal form in 42:9) expresses more forcefully the continuing nature of the psalmist’s distress.
14 sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar statement.
15 sn Mourners would sometimes put ashes on their head or roll in ashes as a sign of mourning (see 2 Sam 13:19; Job 2:8; Isa 58:5).
16 tn Heb “weeping.”
17 tn Or “for.”
18 tn Or “moan” (ASV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); KJV, CEV “mourn.”
19 tn Heb “my eyes become weak, toward the height.”
20 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in v. 16 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
21 tn Heb “stand surety for me.” Hezekiah seems to be picturing himself as a debtor who is being exploited; he asks that the Lord might relieve his debt and deliver him from the oppressive creditor.