Psalms 42:9-11

42:9 I will pray to God, my high ridge:

“Why do you ignore me?

Why must I walk around mourning

because my enemies oppress me?”

42:10 My enemies’ taunts cut into me to the bone,

as they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

42:11 Why are you depressed, O my soul?

Why are you upset?

Wait for God!

For I will again give thanks

to my God for his saving intervention. 10 


tn The cohortative form indicates the psalmist’s resolve.

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.

tn Or “forget.”

sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar idea.

tc Heb “with a shattering in my bones my enemies taunt me.” A few medieval Hebrew mss and Symmachus’ Greek version read “like” instead of “with.”

sn “Where is your God?” The enemies ask this same question in v. 3.

tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”

sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.

tn Heb “and why are you in turmoil upon me?”

10 tc Heb “for again I will give him thanks, the saving acts of my face and my God.” The last line should be emended to read יְשׁוּעֹת פְנֵי אֱלֹהָי (yÿshuot fÿneyelohay, “[for] the saving acts of the face of my God”), that is, the saving acts associated with God’s presence/intervention. This refrain is almost identical to the one in v. 5. See also Ps 43:5.