Psalms 13:1-4

Psalm 13

For the music director; a psalm of David.

13:1 How long, Lord, will you continue to ignore me?

How long will you pay no attention to me?

13:2 How long must I worry,

and suffer in broad daylight?

How long will my enemy gloat over me?

13:3 Look at me! Answer me, O Lord my God!

Revive me, or else I will die!

13:4 Then 10  my enemy will say, “I have defeated him!”

Then 11  my foes will rejoice because I am upended.


sn Psalm 13. The psalmist, who is close to death, desperately pleads for God’s deliverance and affirms his trust in God’s faithfulness.

tn Heb “will you forget me continually.”

tn Heb “will you hide your face from me.”

tn Heb “How long will I put counsel in my being?”

tn Heb “[with] grief in my heart by day.”

tn Heb “be exalted over me.” Perhaps one could translate, “How long will my enemy defeat me?”

tn Heb “see.”

tn Heb “Give light [to] my eyes.” The Hiphil of אוּר (’ur), when used elsewhere with “eyes” as object, refers to the law of God giving moral enlightenment (Ps 19:8), to God the creator giving literal eyesight to all people (Prov 29:13), and to God giving encouragement to his people (Ezra 9:8). Here the psalmist pictures himself as being on the verge of death. His eyes are falling shut and, if God does not intervene soon, he will “fall asleep” for good.

tn Heb “or else I will sleep [in?] the death.” Perhaps the statement is elliptical, “I will sleep [the sleep] of death,” or “I will sleep [with the sleepers in] death.”

10 tn Heb “or else.”

11 tn Heb “or else.”