35:14 I mourned for them as I would for a friend or my brother. 1
I bowed down 2 in sorrow as if I were mourning for my mother. 3
38:6 I am dazed 4 and completely humiliated; 5
all day long I walk around mourning.
42:9 I will pray 6 to God, my high ridge: 7
“Why do you ignore 8 me?
Why must I walk around mourning 9
because my enemies oppress me?”
43:2 For you are the God who shelters me. 10
Why do you reject me? 11
Why must I walk around 12 mourning 13
because my enemies oppress me?
1 tn Heb “like a friend, like a brother to me I walked about.”
2 sn I bowed down. Bowing down was a posture for mourning. See Ps 38:6.
3 tn Heb “like mourning for a mother [in] sorrow I bowed down.”
4 tn The verb’s precise shade of meaning in this context is not entirely clear. The verb, which literally means “to bend,” may refer to the psalmist’s posture. In Isa 21:3 it seems to mean “be confused, dazed.”
5 tn Heb “I am bowed down to excess.”
7 tn The cohortative form indicates the psalmist’s resolve.
8 tn This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28; Pss 18:2; 31:3.
9 tn Or “forget.”
10 sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar idea.
10 tn Heb “God of my place of refuge,” that is, “God who is my place of refuge.” See Ps 31:4.
11 tn The question is similar to that of Ps 42:9, but זָנַח (zanakh, “reject”) is a stronger verb than שָׁכַח (shakhakh, “forget”).
12 tn The language is similar to that of Ps 42:9, but the Hitpael form of the verb הָלַךְ (halakh; as opposed to the Qal form in 42:9) expresses more forcefully the continuing nature of the psalmist’s distress.
13 sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar statement.