42:8 By day the Lord decrees his loyal love, 1
and by night he gives me a song, 2
a prayer 3 to the living God.
63:6 whenever 4 I remember you on my bed,
and think about you during the nighttime hours.
77:6 I said, “During the night I will remember the song I once sang;
I will think very carefully.”
I tried to make sense of what was happening. 5
139:18 If I tried to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
Even if I finished counting them,
I would still have to contend with you. 6
32:26 Then the man 13 said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” 14 “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, 15 “unless you bless me.” 16 32:27 The man asked him, 17 “What is your name?” 18 He answered, “Jacob.” 32:28 “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, 19 “but Israel, 20 because you have fought 21 with God and with men and have prevailed.”
35:9 “People 22 cry out
because of the excess of oppression; 23
they cry out for help
because of the power 24 of the mighty. 25
35:10 But no one says, ‘Where is God, my Creator,
who gives songs in the night, 26
26:9 I 27 look for 28 you during the night,
my spirit within me seeks you at dawn,
for when your judgments come upon the earth,
those who live in the world learn about justice. 29
6:12 Now 30 it was during this time that Jesus 31 went out to the mountain 32 to pray, and he spent all night 33 in prayer to God. 34
16:25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying 35 and singing hymns to God, 36 and the rest of 37 the prisoners were listening to them.
1 sn The psalmist believes that the Lord has not abandoned him, but continues to extend his loyal love. To this point in the psalm, the author has used the name “God,” but now, as he mentions the divine characteristic of loyal love, he switches to the more personal divine name Yahweh (rendered in the translation as “the
2 tn Heb “his song [is] with me.”
3 tc A few medieval Hebrew
4 tn The Hebrew term אִם (’im) is used here in the sense of “when; whenever,” as in Ps 78:34.
5 tn Heb “I will remember my song in the night, with my heart I will reflect. And my spirit searched.” As in v. 4, the words of v. 6a are understood as what the psalmist said earlier. Consequently the words “I said” are supplied in the translation for clarification (see v. 10). The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive at the beginning of the final line is taken as sequential to the perfect “I thought” in v. 6.
6 tc Heb “I awake and I [am] still with you.” A reference to the psalmist awaking from sleep makes little, if any, sense contextually. For this reason some propose an emendation to הֲקִצּוֹתִי (haqitsoti), a Hiphil perfect form from an otherwise unattested verb קָצַץ (qatsats) understood as a denominative of קֵץ (qets, “end”). See L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 252-53.
7 sn Reflecting Jacob’s perspective at the beginning of the encounter, the narrator calls the opponent simply “a man.” Not until later in the struggle does Jacob realize his true identity.
8 sn The verb translated “wrestled” (וַיֵּאָבֵק, vayye’aveq) sounds in Hebrew like the names “Jacob” (יַעֲקֹב, ya’aqov) and “Jabbok” (יַבֹּק, yabboq). In this way the narrator links the setting, the main action, and the main participant together in the mind of the reader or hearer.
9 tn Heb “until the rising of the dawn.”
10 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
11 tn Heb “him”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 tn Or “injured”; traditionally “touched.” The Hebrew verb translated “struck” has the primary meanings “to touch; to reach; to strike.” It can, however, carry the connotation “to harm; to molest; to injure.” God’s “touch” cripples Jacob – it would be comparable to a devastating blow.
13 tn Heb “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
14 tn Heb “dawn has arisen.”
15 tn Heb “and he said, ‘I will not let you go.’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
16 sn Jacob wrestled with a man thinking him to be a mere man, and on that basis was equal to the task. But when it had gone on long enough, the night visitor touched Jacob and crippled him. Jacob’s request for a blessing can only mean that he now knew that his opponent was supernatural. Contrary to many allegorical interpretations of the passage that make fighting equivalent to prayer, this passage shows that Jacob stopped fighting, and then asked for a blessing.
17 tn Heb “and he said to him.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
18 sn What is your name? The question is rhetorical, since the
19 tn Heb “and he said.” The referent of the pronoun “he” (the man who wrestled with Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.
20 sn The name Israel is a common construction, using a verb with a theophoric element (אֵל, ’el) that usually indicates the subject of the verb. Here it means “God fights.” This name will replace the name Jacob; it will be both a promise and a call for faith. In essence, the
21 sn You have fought. The explanation of the name Israel includes a sound play. In Hebrew the verb translated “you have fought” (שָׂרִיתָ, sarita) sounds like the name “Israel” (יִשְׂרָאֵל, yisra’el ), meaning “God fights” (although some interpret the meaning as “he fights [with] God”). The name would evoke the memory of the fight and what it meant. A. Dillmann says that ever after this the name would tell the Israelites that, when Jacob contended successfully with God, he won the battle with man (Genesis, 2:279). To be successful with God meant that he had to be crippled in his own self-sufficiency (A. P. Ross, “Jacob at the Jabboq, Israel at Peniel,” BSac 142 [1985]: 51-62).
22 tn The word “people” is supplied, because the sentence only has the masculine plural verb.
23 tn The final noun is an abstract plural, “oppression.” There is no reason to change it to “oppressors” to fit the early versions. The expression is literally “multitude of oppression.”
24 tn Heb “the arm,” a metaphor for strength or power.
25 tn Or “of the many” (see HALOT 1172 s.v. I רַב 6.a).
26 tn There have been several attempts to emend the line, none of which are particularly helpful or interesting. H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 225) says, “It is a pity to rob Elihu of a poetic line when he creates one.”
27 tn Heb “with my soul I.” This is a figure for the speaker himself (“I”).
28 tn Or “long for, desire.” The speaker acknowledges that he is eager to see God come in judgment (see vv. 8, 9b).
29 tn The translation understands צֶדֶק (tsedeq) in the sense of “justice,” but it is possible that it carries the nuance “righteousness,” in which case one might translate, “those who live in the world learn to live in a righteous manner” (cf. NCV).
30 tn Grk “Now it happened that in.” The introductory phrase ἐγένετο (egeneto, “it happened that”), common in Luke (69 times) and Acts (54 times), is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
31 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
32 tn Or “to a mountain” (εἰς τὸ ὅρος, eis to Joro").
33 sn This is the only time all night prayer is mentioned in the NT.
34 tn This is an objective genitive, so prayer “to God.”
35 tn Grk “praying, were singing.” The participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.
36 sn Praying and singing hymns to God. Tertullian said, “The legs feel nothing in the stocks when the heart is in heaven” (To the Martyrs 2; cf. Rom 5:3; Jas 1:2; 1 Pet 5:6). The presence of God means the potential to be free (cf. v. 26).
37 tn The words “the rest of” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.