73:27 Yes, 1 look! Those far from you 2 die;
you destroy everyone who is unfaithful to you. 3
80:18 Then we will not turn away from you.
Revive us and we will pray to you! 4
21:4 He asked you to sustain his life, 5
and you have granted him long life and an enduring dynasty. 6
38:9 O Lord, you understand my heart’s desire; 7
my groaning is not hidden from you.
69:5 O God, you are aware of my foolish sins; 8
my guilt is not hidden from you. 9
139:12 even the darkness is not too dark for you to see, 10
and the night is as bright as 11 day;
darkness and light are the same to you. 12
139:15 my bones were not hidden from you,
when 13 I was made in secret
and sewed together in the depths of the earth. 14
1 tn Or “for.”
2 sn The following line defines the phrase far from you in a spiritual sense. Those “far” from God are those who are unfaithful and disloyal to him.
3 tn Heb “everyone who commits adultery from you.”
4 tn Heb “and in your name we will call.”
7 tn Heb “life he asked from you.” Another option is to translate the perfect verbal forms in v. 4 with the present tense, “he asks…you grant.”
8 tn Heb “you have granted him length of days forever and ever.” The phrase “length of days,” when used of human beings, usually refers to a lengthy period of time (such as one’s lifetime). See, for example, Deut 30:20; Job 12:12; Ps 91:16; Prov 3:2, 16; Lam 5:20. The additional phrase “forever and ever” is hyperbolic. While it seems to attribute eternal life to the king (see Pss 61:6-7; 72:5 as well), the underlying reality is the king’s enduring dynasty. He will live on, as it were, through his descendants, who will continue to rule over his kingdom long after he has passed off the scene.
10 tn Heb “O Lord, before you [is] all my desire.”
13 tn Heb “you know my foolishness.”
14 sn The psalmist is the first to admit that he is not perfect. But even so, he is innocent of the allegations which his enemies bring against him (v. 5b). God, who is aware of his foolish sins and guilt, can testify to the truth of his claim.
16 tn The words “to see” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
17 tn Heb “shines like.”
18 tn Heb “like darkness, like light.”
19 tc The Hebrew term אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “which”) should probably be emended to כֲּאַשֶׁר (ka’asher, “when”). The kaf (כ) may have been lost by haplography (note the kaf at the end of the preceding form).
20 sn The phrase depths of the earth may be metaphorical (euphemistic) or it may reflect a prescientific belief about the origins of the embryo deep beneath the earth’s surface (see H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 96-97). Job 1:21 also closely associates the mother’s womb with the earth.