73:20 They are like a dream after one wakes up. 1
O Lord, when you awake 2 you will despise them. 3
1 tn Heb “like a dream from awakening.” They lack any real substance; their prosperity will last for only a brief time.
2 sn When you awake. The psalmist compares God’s inactivity to sleep and the time of God’s judgment to his awakening from sleep.
3 tn Heb “you will despise their form.” The Hebrew term צֶלֶם (tselem, “form; image”) also suggests their short-lived nature. Rather than having real substance, they are like the mere images that populate one’s dreams. Note the similar use of the term in Ps 39:6.