Psalms 38:4

38:4 For my sins overwhelm me; ¹ 

like a heavy load, they are too much for me to bear.

Psalms 40:12

40:12 For innumerable dangers ²  surround me.

My sins overtake me

so I am unable to see;

they outnumber the hairs of my head

so my strength fails me. ³ 

Psalms 40:2

40:2 He lifted me out of the watery pit, ⁴ 

out of the slimy mud. ⁵ 

He placed my feet on a rock

and gave me secure footing. ⁶ 

Psalms 12:7

12:7 You, Lord, will protect them; ⁷ 

you will continually shelter each one from these evil people, ⁸ 

Micah 7:8-9

Jerusalem Will Be Vindicated

7:8 My enemies, ⁹  do not gloat ¹⁰  over me!

Though I have fallen, I will get up.

Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. ¹¹ 

7:9 I must endure ¹²  the Lord’s anger,

for I have sinned against him.

But then ¹³  he will defend my cause, ¹⁴ 

and accomplish justice on my behalf.

He will lead me out into the light;

I will experience firsthand ¹⁵  his deliverance. ¹⁶ 

Romans 7:23-25

7:23 But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 7:25 Thanks be ¹⁷  to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, ¹⁸  I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but ¹⁹  with my flesh I serve ²⁰  the law of sin.

Galatians 5:17

5:17 For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit, and the Spirit has desires ²¹  that are opposed to the flesh, for these are in opposition to ²²  each other, so that you cannot do what you want.

¹ tn Heb “pass over my head.”

² tn Or “sinful deeds.” The Hebrew term used here can have a nonmoral nuance (“dangers”) or a moral one (“sinful deeds”) depending on the context. The next line (see “my sins”) seems to favor the moral sense, but the psalmist also speaks of enemies shortly after this (v. 14).

³ tn Heb “and my heart abandons me.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of emotional strength and courage. For a similar idea see Ps 38:10.

⁴ tn Heb “cistern of roaring.” The Hebrew noun בּוֹר (bor, “cistern, pit”) is used metaphorically here of Sheol, the place of death, which is sometimes depicted as a raging sea (see Ps 18:4, 15-16). The noun שָׁאוֹן (sha’on, “roaring”) refers elsewhere to the crashing sound of the sea’s waves (see Ps 65:7).

⁵ tn Heb “from the mud of mud.” The Hebrew phrase translated “slimy mud” employs an appositional genitive. Two synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.

⁶ tn Heb “he established my footsteps.”

⁷ tn The third person plural pronominal suffix on the verb is masculine, referring back to the “oppressed” and “needy” in v. 5 (both of those nouns are plural in form), suggesting that the verb means “protect” here. The suffix does not refer to אִמֲרוֹת (’imarot, “words”) in v. 6, because that term is feminine gender.

⁸ tn Heb “you will protect him from this generation permanently.” The third masculine singular suffix on the verb “protect” is probably used in a distributive sense, referring to each one within the group mentioned previously (the oppressed/needy, referred to as “them” in the preceding line). On this grammatical point see GKC 396 §123.f (where the present text is not cited). (Some Hebrew mss and ancient textual witnesses read “us,” both here and in the preceding line.) The noun דוֹר (dor, “generation”) refers here to the psalmist’s contemporaries, who were characterized by deceit and arrogance (see vv. 1-2). See BDB 189-90 s.v. for other examples where “generation” refers to a class of people.

⁹ tn The singular form is understood as collective.

¹⁰ tn Or “rejoice” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NCV “don’t laugh at me.”

¹¹ sn Darkness represents judgment; light (also in v. 9) symbolizes deliverance. The Lord is the source of the latter.

¹² tn Heb “lift, bear.”

¹³ tn Heb “until.”

¹⁴ tn Or “plead my case” (NASB and NIV both similar); NRSV “until he takes my side.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “see.”

¹⁶ tn Or “justice, vindication.”

¹⁷ tc ‡ Most mss (א* A 1739 1881 Ï sy) read “I give thanks to God” rather than “Now thanks be to God” (א¹ [B] Ψ 33 81 104 365 1506 pc), the reading of NA²⁷. The reading with the verb (εὐχαριστῶ τῷ θεῷ, eucaristw tw qew) possibly arose from a transcriptional error in which several letters were doubled (TCGNT 455). The conjunction δέ (de, “now”) is included in some mss as well (א¹ Ψ 33 81 104 365 1506 pc), but it should probably not be considered original. The ms support for the omission of δέ is both excellent and widespread (א* A B D 1739 1881 Ï lat sy), and its addition can be explained as an insertion to smooth out the transition between v. 24 and 25.

¹⁸ tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.

¹⁹ tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.

²⁰ tn The words “I serve” have been repeated here for clarity.

²¹ tn The words “has desires” do not occur in the Greek text a second time, but are repeated in the translation for clarity.

²² tn Or “are hostile toward” (L&N 39.1).