3:4 To the Lord I cried out, 1
and he answered me from his holy hill. 2 (Selah)
22:2 My God, I cry out during the day,
but you do not answer,
and during the night my prayers do not let up. 3
56:9 My enemies will turn back when I cry out to you for help; 4
I know that God is on my side. 5
61:2 From the most remote place on earth 6
I call out to you in my despair. 7
Lead me 8 up to an inaccessible rocky summit! 9
18:6 In my distress I called to the Lord;
I cried out to my God. 10
From his heavenly temple 11 he heard my voice;
he listened to my cry for help. 12
By David.
28:1 To you, O Lord, I cry out!
My protector, 14 do not ignore me! 15
If you do not respond to me, 16
I will join 17 those who are descending into the grave. 18
102:2 Do not ignore me in my time of trouble! 19
Listen to me! 20
When I call out to you, quickly answer me!
1 tn The prefixed verbal form could be an imperfect, yielding the translation “I cry out,” but the verb form in the next line (a vav [ו] consecutive with the preterite) suggests this is a brief narrative of what has already happened. Consequently the verb form in v. 4a is better understood as a preterite, “I cried out.” (For another example of the preterite of this same verb form, see Ps 30:8.) Sometime after the crisis arose, the psalmist prayed to the Lord and received an assuring answer. Now he confidently awaits the fulfillment of the divine promise.
2 sn His holy hill. That is, Zion (see Pss 2:6; 48:1-2). The psalmist recognizes that the
3 tn Heb “there is no silence to me.”
5 tn Heb “then my enemies will turn back in the day I cry out.” The Hebrew particle אָז (’az, “then”) is probably used here to draw attention to the following statement.
6 tn Heb “this I know, that God is for me.”
7 tn Heb “from the end of the earth.” This may indicate (1) the psalmist is exiled in a distant land, or (2) it may be hyperbolic (the psalmist feels alienated from God’s presence, as if he were in a distant land).
8 tn Heb “while my heart faints.”
9 tn The imperfect verbal form here expresses the psalmist’s wish or prayer.
10 tn Heb “on to a rocky summit [that] is higher than I.”
9 tn In this poetic narrative context the four prefixed verbal forms in v. 6 are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects.
10 tn Heb “from his temple.” Verse 10, which pictures God descending from the sky, indicates that the heavenly temple is in view, not the earthly one.
11 tc Heb “and my cry for help before him came into his ears.” 2 Sam 22:7 has a shorter reading, “my cry for help, in his ears.” It is likely that Ps 18:6 MT as it now stands represents a conflation of two readings: (1) “my cry for help came before him,” (2) “my cry for help came into his ears.” See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBLDS), 144, n. 13.
11 sn Psalm 28. The author looks to the Lord for vindication, asks that the wicked be repaid in full for their evil deeds, and affirms his confidence that the Lord will protect his own.
12 tn Heb “my rocky summit.” The Lord is compared to a rocky summit where one can find protection from enemies. See Ps 18:2.
13 tn Heb “do not be deaf from me.”
14 tn Heb “lest [if] you are silent from me.”
15 tn Heb “I will be equal with.”
16 tn Heb “the pit.” The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit, cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead.
13 tn Heb “do not hide your face from me in the day of my trouble.” The idiom “to hide the face” can mean “to ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “to reject” (see Pss 29:7; 30:7; 88:14).
14 tn Heb “turn toward me your ear.”