Psalms 77:2

77:2 In my time of trouble I sought ¹  the Lord.

I kept my hand raised in prayer throughout the night. ² 

I ³  refused to be comforted.

Psalms 116:1-5

Psalm 116 ⁴ 

116:1 I love the Lord

because he heard my plea for mercy, ⁵ 

116:2 and listened to me. ⁶ 

As long as I live, I will call to him when I need help. ⁷ 

116:3 The ropes of death tightened around me, ⁸ 

the snares ⁹  of Sheol confronted me.

I was confronted ¹⁰  with trouble and sorrow.

116:4 I called on the name of the Lord,

“Please Lord, rescue my life!”

116:5 The Lord is merciful and fair;

our God is compassionate.

Psalms 138:7

138:7 Even when I must walk in the midst of danger, ¹¹  you revive me.

You oppose my angry enemies, ¹² 

and your right hand delivers me.

Jeremiah 30:7

30:7 Alas, what a terrible time of trouble it is! ¹³ 

There has never been any like it.

It is a time of trouble for the descendants of Jacob,

but some of them will be rescued out of it. ¹⁴ 

Hebrews 5:7

5:7 During his earthly life ¹⁵  Christ ¹⁶  offered ¹⁷  both requests and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his devotion.

¹ tn Here the psalmist refers back to the very recent past, when he began to pray for divine help.

² tn Heb “my hand [at] night was extended and was not growing numb.” The verb נָגַר (nagar), which can mean “flow” in certain contexts, here has the nuance “be extended.” The imperfect form (תָפוּג, tafug, “to be numb”) is used here to describe continuous action in the past.

³ tn Or “my soul.” 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).

⁴ sn Psalm 116. The psalmist thanks the Lord for delivering him from a life threatening crisis and promises to tell the entire covenant community what God has done for him.

⁵ tn Heb “I love because the Lord heard my voice, my pleas.” It is possible that “the Lord” originally appeared directly after “I love” and was later accidentally misplaced. The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls that God heard his cry for help (note the perfect in v. 2a and the narrative in vv. 3-4).

⁶ tn Heb “because he turned his ear to me.”

⁷ tn Heb “and in my days I will cry out.”

⁸ tn Heb “surrounded me.”

⁹ tn The Hebrew noun מצר (“straits; distress”) occurs only here, Ps 118:5 and Lam 1:3. If retained, it refers to Sheol as a place where one is confined or severely restricted (cf. BDB 865 s.v. מֵצַר, “the straits of Sheol”; NIV “the anguish of the grave”; NRSV “the pangs of Sheol”). However, HALOT 624 s.v. מֵצַר suggests an emendation to מְצָדֵי (mÿtsadey, “snares of”), a rare noun attested in Job 19:6 and Eccl 7:26. This proposal, which is reflected in the translation, produces better parallelism with “ropes” in the preceding line.

¹⁰ tn The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls the crisis from which the Lord delivered him.

¹¹ tn Or “distress.”

¹² tn Heb “against the anger of my enemies you extend your hand.”

¹³ tn Heb “Alas [or Woe] for that day will be great.” For the use of the particle “Alas” to signal a time of terrible trouble, even to sound the death knell for someone, see the translator’s note on 22:13.

¹⁴ tn Heb “It is a time of trouble for Jacob but he will be saved out of it.”

¹⁵ tn Grk “in the days of his flesh.”

¹⁶ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁷ tn Grk “who…having offered,” continuing the description of Christ from Heb 5:5-6.