4:6 Many say, “Who can show us anything good?”
Smile upon us, Lord! 1
4:7 You make me happier 2
than those who have abundant grain and wine. 3
116:2 and listened to me. 4
As long as I live, I will call to him when I need help. 5
140:7 O sovereign Lord, my strong deliverer, 6
you shield 7 my head in the day of battle.
46:3 “Listen to me, O family of Jacob, 8
all you who are left from the family of Israel, 9
you who have been carried from birth, 10
you who have been supported from the time you left the womb. 11
46:4 Even when you are old, I will take care of you, 12
even when you have gray hair, I will carry you.
I made you and I will support you;
I will carry you and rescue you. 13
46:2 Together they bend low and kneel down;
they are unable to rescue the images; 14
they themselves 15 head off into captivity. 16
1 tn Heb “lift up upon us the light of your face,
2 tn Heb “you place joy in my heart.” Another option is to understand the perfect verbal form as indicating certitude, “you will make me happier.”
3 tn Heb “from (i.e., more than) the time (when) their grain and their wine are abundant.”
4 tn Heb “because he turned his ear to me.”
5 tn Heb “and in my days I will cry out.”
6 tn Heb “the strength of my deliverance.”
7 tn Heb “cover.”
8 tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV “descendants of Jacob.”
9 tn Heb “and all the remnant of the house of Israel.”
10 tn Heb “from the womb” (so NRSV); KJV “from the belly”; NAB “from your infancy.”
11 tn Heb “who have been lifted up from the womb.”
12 tn Heb “until old age, I am he” (NRSV similar); NLT “I will be your God throughout your lifetime.”
13 sn Unlike the weary idol gods, whose images must be carried by animals, the Lord carries his weary people.
14 tn Heb “[the] burden,” i.e., their images, the heavy burden carried by the animals.
15 tn נַפְשָׁם (nafsham, “their souls/lives”) is equivalent here to a third masculine plural suffix, but the third feminine singular verb הָלָכָה (halakhah, “they go”) agrees with the feminine noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, life”).
16 sn The downfall of Babylon is depicted here. The idols are carried off by the victorious enemy; the gods are likened to defeated captives who cower before the enemy and are taken into exile.
17 tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”
18 tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”