Psalms 27:13

27:13 Where would I be if I did not believe I would experience

the Lord’s favor in the land of the living?

Psalms 116:9

116:9 I will serve the Lord

in the land of the living.

Isaiah 38:11

38:11 “I thought,

‘I will no longer see the Lord in the land of the living,

I will no longer look on humankind with the inhabitants of the world.


tn In the Hebrew text the sentence is incomplete: “If I had not believed [I would] see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” The words “Where would I be” are supplied in the translation to clarify the intent of the statement.

tn Heb “walk before” (see Ps 56:13). On the meaning of the Hebrew idiom, see the notes at 2 Kgs 20:3/Isa 38:3.

tn Heb “lands, regions.”

tn The Hebrew text has יָהּ יָהּ (yah yah, the abbreviated form of יְהוָה [yÿhvah] repeated), but this is probably a corruption of יְהוָה.

tc The Hebrew text has חָדֶל (khadel), which appears to be derived from a verbal root meaning “to cease, refrain.” But the form has probably suffered an error of transmission; the original form (attested in a few medieval Hebrew mss) was likely חֶלֶד (kheled, “world”).