6:2 Have mercy on me, 1 Lord, for I am frail!
Heal me, Lord, for my bones are shaking! 2
6:3 I am absolutely terrified, 3
and you, Lord – how long will this continue? 4
38:3 My whole body is sick because of your judgment; 5
I am deprived of health because of my sin. 6
38:4 For my sins overwhelm me; 7
like a heavy load, they are too much for me to bear.
38:5 My wounds 8 are infected and starting to smell, 9
because of my foolish sins. 10
38:6 I am dazed 11 and completely humiliated; 12
all day long I walk around mourning.
38:7 For I am overcome with shame 13
and my whole body is sick. 14
38:8 I am numb with pain and severely battered; 15
I groan loudly because of the anxiety I feel. 16
38:2 For your arrows pierce 17 me,
and your hand presses me down. 18
For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments, according to the sheminith style; 20 a psalm of David.
6:1 Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger!
Do not discipline me in your raging fury! 21
1:5 22 Why do you insist on being battered?
Why do you continue to rebel? 23
Your head has a massive wound, 24
your whole body is weak. 25
1:6 From the soles of your feet to your head,
there is no spot that is unharmed. 26
There are only bruises, cuts,
and open wounds.
They have not been cleansed 27 or bandaged,
nor have they been treated 28 with olive oil. 29
5:13 When Ephraim saw 30 his sickness
and Judah saw his wound,
then Ephraim turned 31 to Assyria,
and begged 32 its great king 33 for help.
But he will not be able to heal you!
He cannot cure your wound! 34
6:1 “Come on! Let’s return to the Lord!
He himself has torn us to pieces,
but he will heal us!
He has injured 35 us,
but he will bandage our wounds!
1 tn Or “show me favor.”
2 tn Normally the verb בָּהַל (bahal) refers to an emotional response and means “tremble with fear, be terrified” (see vv. 3, 10). Perhaps here the “bones” are viewed as the seat of the psalmist’s emotions. However, the verb may describe one of the effects of his physical ailment, perhaps a fever. In Ezek 7:27 the verb describes how the hands of the people will shake with fear when they experience the horrors of divine judgment.
3 tn Heb “my being is very terrified.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.
4 tn Heb “and you,
5 tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh from before your anger.” “Anger” here refers metonymically to divine judgment, which is the practical effect of God’s anger at the psalmist’s sin.
6 tn Heb “there is no health in my bones from before my sin.”
7 tn Heb “pass over my head.”
8 sn The reference to wounds may be an extension of the metaphorical language of v. 2. The psalmist pictures himself as one whose flesh is ripped and torn by arrows.
9 tn Heb “my wounds stink, they are festering” (cf. NEB).
10 tn Heb “from before my foolishness.”
11 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.”
12 tn Heb “I am bowed down to excess.”
13 tn Heb “for my loins are filled with shame.” The “loins” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s emotions. The present translation assumes that נִקְלֶה (niqleh) is derived from קָלָה (qalah, “be dishonored”). Some derive it instead from a homonymic root קָלָה (qalah), meaning “to roast.” In this case one might translate “fever” (cf. NEB “my loins burn with fever”).
14 tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh” (see v. 3).
15 tn Heb “I am numb and crushed to excess.”
16 tn Heb “I roar because of the moaning of my heart.”
17 tn The verb Hebrew נָחַת (nakhat) apparently here means “penetrate, pierce” (note the use of the Qal in Prov 17:10). The psalmist pictures the
18 tn Heb “and your hand [?] upon me.” The meaning of the verb נָחַת (nakhat) is unclear in this context. It is preferable to emend the form to וַתָּנַח (vattanakh) from the verb נוּחַ (nuakh, “rest”). In this case the text would read literally, “and your hand rests upon me” (see Isa 25:10, though the phrase is used in a positive sense there, unlike Ps 38:2).
19 sn Psalm 6. The psalmist begs the Lord to withdraw his anger and spare his life. Having received a positive response to his prayer, the psalmist then confronts his enemies and describes how they retreat.
20 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term שְׁמִינִית (shÿminit, “sheminith”) is uncertain; perhaps it refers to a particular style of music. See 1 Chr 15:21.
21 sn The implication is that the psalmist has sinned, causing God to discipline him by bringing a life-threatening illness upon him (see vv. 2-7).
22 sn In vv. 5-9 Isaiah addresses the battered nation (5-8) and speaks as their representative (9).
23 tn Heb “Why are you still beaten? [Why] do you continue rebellion?” The rhetorical questions express the prophet’s disbelief over Israel’s apparent masochism and obsession with sin. The interrogative construction in the first line does double duty in the parallelism. H. Wildberger (Isaiah, 1:18) offers another alternative by translating the two statements with one question: “Why do you still wish to be struck that you persist in revolt?”
24 tn Heb “all the head is ill”; NRSV “the whole head is sick”; CEV “Your head is badly bruised.”
25 tn Heb “and all the heart is faint.” The “heart” here stands for bodily strength and energy, as suggested by the context and usage elsewhere (see Jer 8:18; Lam 1:22).
26 tn Heb “there is not in it health”; NAB “there is no sound spot.”
27 tn Heb “pressed out.”
28 tn Heb “softened” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “soothed.”
29 sn This verse describes wounds like those one would receive in battle. These wounds are comprehensive and without remedy.
30 tn Hosea employs three preterites (vayyiqtol forms) in verse 13a-b to describe a past-time situation.
31 tn Heb “went to” (so NAB, NRSV, TEV); CEV “asked help from.”
32 tn Heb “sent to” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV).
33 tc The MT reads מֶלֶךְ יָרֵב (melekh yarev, “a contentious king”). This is translated as a proper name (“king Jareb”) by KJV, ASV, NASB. However, the stative adjective יָרֵב (“contentious”) is somewhat awkward. The words should be redivided as an archaic genitive-construct מַלְכִּי רָב (malki rav, “great king”; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) which preserves the old genitive hireq yod ending. This is the equivalent of the Assyrian royal epithet sarru rabbu (“the great king”). See also the tc note on the same phrase in 10:6.
34 tn Heb “your wound will not depart from you.”
35 tn “has struck”; NRSV “struck down.”