Psalms 69:1-2

Psalm 69 ¹ 

For the music director; according to the tune of “Lilies;” ²  by David.

69:1 Deliver me, O God,

for the water has reached my neck. ³ 

69:2 I sink into the deep mire

where there is no solid ground; ⁴ 

I am in ⁵  deep water,

and the current overpowers me.

Psalms 69:15

69:15 Don’t let the current overpower me!

Don’t let the deep swallow me up!

Don’t let the pit ⁶  devour me! ⁷ 

Psalms 42:7

42:7 One deep stream calls out to another ⁸  at the sound of your waterfalls; ⁹ 

all your billows and waves overwhelm me. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 124:4-5

124:4 The water would have overpowered us;

the current ¹¹  would have overwhelmed ¹²  us. ¹³ 

124:5 The raging water

would have overwhelmed us. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 144:7

144:7 Reach down ¹⁵  from above!

Grab me and rescue me from the surging water, ¹⁶ 

from the power of foreigners, ¹⁷ 

Mark 14:34-42

14:34 He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death. Remain here and stay alert.” 14:35 Going a little farther, he threw himself to the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour would pass from him. 14:36 He said, “Abba, ¹⁸  Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup ¹⁹  away from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” 14:37 Then ²⁰  he came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you stay awake for one hour? 14:38 Stay awake and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 14:39 He went away again and prayed the same thing. 14:40 When he came again he found them sleeping; they could not keep their eyes open. ²¹  And they did not know what to tell him. 14:41 He came a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? ²²  Enough of that! ²³  The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 14:42 Get up, let us go. Look! My betrayer ²⁴  is approaching!”

Mark 15:34

15:34 Around three o’clock ²⁵  Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ²⁶ 

¹ sn Psalm 69. The psalmist laments his oppressed condition and asks the Lord to deliver him by severely judging his enemies.

² tn Heb “according to lilies.” See the superscription to Ps 45.

³ tn The Hebrew term נפשׁ (nefesh) here refers to the psalmist’s throat or neck. The psalmist compares himself to a helpless, drowning man.

⁴ tn Heb “and there is no place to stand.”

⁵ tn Heb “have entered.”

⁶ tn Heb “well,” which here symbolizes the place of the dead (cf. Ps 55:23).

⁷ tn Heb “do not let the well close its mouth upon me.”

⁸ tn Heb “deep calls to deep.” The Hebrew noun תְּהוֹם (tÿhom) often refers to the deep sea, but here, where it is associated with Hermon, it probably refers to mountain streams. The word can be used of streams and rivers (see Deut 8:7; Ezek 31:4).

⁹ tn The noun צִנּוֹר (tsinnor, “waterfall”) occurs only here and in 2 Sam 5:8, where it apparently refers to a water shaft. The psalmist alludes to the loud rushing sound of mountain streams and cascading waterfalls. Using the poetic device of personification, he imagines the streams calling out to each other as they hear the sound of the waterfalls.

¹⁰ tn Heb “pass over me” (see Jonah 2:3). As he hears the sound of the rushing water, the psalmist imagines himself engulfed in the current. By implication he likens his emotional distress to such an experience.

¹¹ tn Or “stream.”

¹² tn Heb “would have passed over.”

¹³ tn Heb “our being.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

¹⁴ tn Heb “then they would have passed over our being, the raging waters.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “stretch out your hands.”

¹⁶ tn Heb “mighty waters.” The waters of the sea symbolize the psalmist’s powerful foreign enemies, as well as the realm of death they represent (see the next line and Ps 18:16-17).

¹⁷ tn Heb “from the hand of the sons of foreignness.”

¹⁸ tn The word means “Father” in Aramaic.

¹⁹ sn This cup alludes to the wrath of God that Jesus would experience (in the form of suffering and death) for us. See Ps 11:6; 75:8-9; Isa 51:17, 19, 22 for this figure.

²⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

²¹ tn Grk “because their eyes were weighed down,” an idiom for becoming extremely or excessively sleepy (L&N 23.69).

²² tn Or “Sleep on, and get your rest.” This sentence can be taken either as a question or a sarcastic command.

²³ tc Codex D (with some support with minor variation from W Θ Ë¹³ 565 2542 pc it) reads, “Enough of that! It is the end and the hour has come.” Evidently, this addition highlights Jesus’ assertion that what he had predicted about his own death was now coming true (cf. Luke 22:37). Even though the addition highlights the accuracy of Jesus’ prediction, it should not be regarded as part of the text of Mark, since it receives little support from the rest of the witnesses and because D especially is prone to expand the wording of a text.

²⁴ tn Grk “the one who betrays me.”

²⁵ tn The repetition of the phrase “three o’clock” preserves the author’s rougher, less elegant style (cf. Matt 27:45-46; Luke 23:44). Although such stylistic matters are frequently handled differently in the translation, because the issue of synoptic literary dependence is involved here, it was considered important to reflect some of the stylistic differences among the synoptics in the translation, so that the English reader can be aware of them.

²⁶ sn A quotation from Ps 22:1.