30:8 To you, O Lord, I cried out;
I begged the Lord for mercy: 1
30:9 “What 2 profit is there in taking my life, 3
in my descending into the Pit? 4
Can the dust of the grave 5 praise you?
Can it declare your loyalty? 6
30:10 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me!
O Lord, deliver me!” 7
1 tn The prefixed verbal forms in v. 8 are probably preterites; the psalmist recalls that he prayed in his time of crisis.
2 sn The following two verses (vv. 9-10) contain the prayer (or an excerpt of the prayer) that the psalmist offered to the Lord during his crisis.
3 tn Heb “What profit [is there] in my blood?” “Blood” here represents his life.
4 tn The Hebrew term שָׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 16:10; 49:9; 55:24; 103:4).
5 tn Heb “dust.” The words “of the grave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
6 tn The rhetorical questions anticipate the answer, “Of course not!”
3 tn Heb “be a helper to me.”