69:14 Rescue me from the mud! Don’t let me sink!
Deliver me 1 from those who hate me,
from the deep water!
69:15 Don’t let the current overpower me!
Don’t let the deep swallow me up!
Don’t let the pit 2 devour me! 3
69:16 Answer me, O Lord, for your loyal love is good! 4
Because of your great compassion, turn toward me!
69:17 Do not ignore 5 your servant,
for I am in trouble! Answer me right away! 6
69:18 Come near me and redeem me! 7
Because of my enemies, rescue me!
69:19 You know how I am insulted, humiliated and disgraced;
you can see all my enemies. 8
69:20 Their insults are painful 9 and make me lose heart; 10
I look 11 for sympathy, but receive none, 12
for comforters, but find none.
88:15 I am oppressed and have been on the verge of death since my youth. 13
I have been subjected to your horrors and am numb with pain. 14
88:16 Your anger overwhelms me; 15
your terrors destroy me.
88:17 They surround me like water all day long;
they join forces and encircle me. 16
88:18 You cause my friends and neighbors to keep their distance; 17
those who know me leave me alone in the darkness. 18
143:4 My strength leaves me; 19
I am absolutely shocked. 20
9:17 “So now, our God, accept 21 the prayer and requests of your servant, and show favor to 22 your devastated sanctuary for your own sake. 23
15:33 Now 24 when it was noon, 25 darkness came over the whole land 26 until three in the afternoon. 27 15:34 Around three o’clock 28 Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 29 15:35 When some of the bystanders heard it they said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah!” 30
1 tn Heb “let me be delivered.”
2 tn Heb “well,” which here symbolizes the place of the dead (cf. Ps 55:23).
3 tn Heb “do not let the well close its mouth upon me.”
4 tn Or “pleasant”; or “desirable.”
5 tn Heb “do not hide your face from.” The Hebrew idiom “hide the face” can (1) mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or (2) carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).
6 tn Or “quickly.”
7 tn Heb “come near my life and redeem it.” The verb “redeem” casts the
8 tn Heb “before you [are] all my enemies.”
9 tn Heb “break my heart.” The “heart” is viewed here as the origin of the psalmist’s emotions.
10 tn The verb form appears to be a Qal preterite from an otherwise unattested root נוּשׁ (nush), which some consider an alternate form of אָנַשׁ (’anash, “be weak; be sick”; see BDB 60 s.v. I אָנַשׁ). Perhaps the form should be emended to a Niphal, וָאֵאָנְשָׁה (va’e’onshah, “and I am sick”). The Niphal of אָנַשׁ occurs in 2 Sam 12:15, where it is used to describe David’s sick child.
11 tn Heb “wait.”
12 tn Heb “and I wait for sympathy, but there is none.” The form נוּד (nud) is an infinitive functioning as a verbal noun:, “sympathizing.” Some suggest emending the form to a participle נָד (nad, “one who shows sympathy”). The verb נוּד (nud) also has the nuance “show sympathy” in Job 2:11; 42:11 and Isa 51:19.
13 tn Heb “and am dying from youth.”
14 tn Heb “I carry your horrors [?].” The meaning of the Hebrew form אָפוּנָה (’afunah), which occurs only here in the OT, is unclear. It may be an adverb meaning “very much” (BDB 67 s.v.), though some prefer to emend the text to אָפוּגָה (’afugah, “I am numb”) from the verb פוּג (pug; see Pss 38:8; 77:2).
15 tn Heb “passes over me.”
16 tn Heb “they encircle me together.”
17 tn Heb “you cause to be far from me friend and neighbor.”
18 tn Heb “those known by me, darkness.”
19 tn Heb “my spirit grows faint.”
20 tn Heb “in my midst my heart is shocked.” For a similar use of the Hitpolel of שָׁמֵם (shamem), see Isa 59:16; 63:5.
21 tn Heb “hear.” Here the verb refers to hearing favorably, accepting the prayer and responding positively.
22 tn Heb “let your face shine.” This idiom pictures God smiling in favor. See Pss 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19.
23 tn Heb “for the sake of my Lord.” Theodotion has “for your sake.” Cf. v. 19.
24 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.
25 tn Grk “When the sixth hour had come.”
26 sn This imagery has parallels to the Day of the Lord: Joel 2:10; Amos 8:9; Zeph 1:15.
27 tn Grk “until the ninth hour.”
28 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.
29 sn A quotation from Ps 22:1.
30 sn Perhaps the crowd thought Jesus was calling for Elijah because the exclamation “my God, my God” (i.e., in Aramaic, Eloi, Eloi) sounds like the name Elijah.