Psalms 28:2

28:2 Hear my plea for mercy when I cry out to you for help,

when I lift my hands ¹  toward your holy temple! ² 

Psalms 63:4

63:4 For this reason ³  I will praise you while I live;

in your name I will lift up my hands. ⁴ 

Psalms 141:2

141:2 May you accept my prayer like incense,

my uplifted hands like the evening offering! ⁵ 

Lamentations 2:19

ק (Qof)

2:19 Get up! Cry out in the night ⁶ 

when the night watches start! ⁷ 

Pour out your heart ⁸  like water

before the face of the Lord! ⁹ 

Lift up your hands ¹⁰  to him

for your children’s lives; ¹¹ 

they are fainting ¹² 

at every street corner. ¹³ 

Lamentations 3:41

3:41 Let us lift up our hearts ¹⁴  and our hands

to God in heaven:

¹ sn I lift my hands. Lifting one’s hands toward God was a gesture of prayer.

² tn The Hebrew term דְּבִיר (dÿvir, “temple”) actually refers to the most holy place within the sanctuary.

³ tn Or perhaps “then.”

⁴ sn I will lift up my hands. Lifting up one’s hands toward God was a gesture of prayer (see Ps 28:2; Lam 2:19) or respect (Ps 119:48).

⁵ tn Heb “may my prayer be established [like] incense before you, the uplifting of my hands [like] an evening offering.”

⁶ tc The Kethib is written בַּלַּיִל (ballayil) a defective spelling for בַּלַּיְלָה (ballaylah, “night”). The Qere reads בַּלַּיְלָה (ballaylah, “night”), which is preserved in numerous medieval Hebrew mss.

⁷ tn Heb “at the head of the watches.”

⁸ tn The noun לֵבָב (levav, “heart”) functions here as a metonymy of association for the thoughts and emotions in the heart. The Hebrew לֵבָב (levav) includes the mind so that in some cases the translation “heart” implies an inappropriate division between the cognitive and affective. This context is certainly emotionally loaded, but as part of a series of admonitions to address God in prayer, these emotions are inextricably bound with the thoughts of the mind. The singular “heart” is retained in the translation to be consistent with the personification of Jerusalem (cf. v. 18).

⁹ tc The MT reads אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “the Lord”) here rather than יהוה (YHWH, “the Lord”). See the tc note at 1:14.

¹⁰ sn Lifting up the palms or hands is a metaphor for prayer.

¹¹ tn Heb “on account of the life of your children.” The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) refers to the “life” of their dying children (e.g., Lam 2:12). The singular noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “life”) is used as a collective, as the plural genitive noun that follows makes clear: “your children.”

¹² tc The BHS editors and many commentators suggest that the fourth bicola in 2:19 is a late addition and should be deleted. Apart from the four sets of bicola in 1:7 and 2:19, every stanza in chapters 1-4 consists of three sets of bicola.

¹³ tn Heb “at the head of every street.”

¹⁴ tc The MT reads the singular noun לְבָבֵנוּ (lÿvavenu, “our heart”) but the ancient versions (LXX, Aramaic Targum, Latin Vulgate) and many medieval Hebrew mss read the plural noun לְבָבֵינוּ (lÿvavenu, “our hearts”). Hebrew regularly places plural pronouns on singular nouns used as a collective (135 times on the singular “heart” and only twice on the plural “hearts”). The plural “hearts” in any Hebrew construction is actually rather rare. The LXX renders similar Hebrew constructions (singular “heart” plus a plural pronoun) with the plural “hearts” about 1/3 of the time, therefore it cannot be considered evidence for the reading. The Vulgate may have been influenced by the LXX. Although a distributive sense is appropriate for a much higher percentage of passages using the plural “hearts” in the LXX, no clear reason for the differentiation in the LXX has emerged. Likely the singular Hebrew form is original but the meaning is best represented in English with the plural.