Isaiah 42:14

42:14 “I have been inactive ¹  for a long time;

I kept quiet and held back.

Like a woman in labor I groan;

I pant and gasp. ² 

Psalms 10:1

Psalm 10 ³ 

10:1 Why, Lord, do you stand far off?

Why do you pay no attention during times of trouble? ⁴ 

Psalms 74:10-11

74:10 How long, O God, will the adversary hurl insults?

Will the enemy blaspheme your name forever?

74:11 Why do you remain inactive?

Intervene and destroy him! ⁵ 

Psalms 74:18-19

74:18 Remember how ⁶  the enemy hurls insults, O Lord, ⁷ 

and how a foolish nation blasphemes your name!

74:19 Do not hand the life of your dove ⁸  over to a wild animal!

Do not continue to disregard ⁹  the lives of your oppressed people!

Psalms 79:5

79:5 How long will this go on, O Lord? ¹⁰ 

Will you stay angry forever?

How long will your rage ¹¹  burn like fire?

Psalms 80:3-4

80:3 O God, restore us!

Smile on us! ¹²  Then we will be delivered! ¹³ 

80:4 O Lord God, invincible warrior! ¹⁴ 

How long will you remain angry at your people while they pray to you? ¹⁵ 

Psalms 83:1

Psalm 83 ¹⁶ 

A song, a psalm of Asaph.

83:1 O God, do not be silent!

Do not ignore us! ¹⁷  Do not be inactive, O God!

Psalms 89:46-51

89:46 How long, O Lord, will this last?

Will you remain hidden forever? ¹⁸ 

Will your anger continue to burn like fire?

89:47 Take note of my brief lifespan! ¹⁹ 

Why do you make all people so mortal? ²⁰ 

89:48 No man can live on without experiencing death,

or deliver his life from the power of Sheol. ²¹  (Selah)

89:49 Where are your earlier faithful deeds, ²²  O Lord, ²³ 

the ones performed in accordance with your reliable oath to David? ²⁴ 

89:50 Take note, O Lord, ²⁵  of the way your servants are taunted, ²⁶ 

and of how I must bear so many insults from people! ²⁷ 

89:51 Your enemies, O Lord, hurl insults;

they insult your chosen king as they dog his footsteps. ²⁸ 

Zechariah 1:12

1:12 The angel of the Lord then asked, “Lord who rules over all, ²⁹  how long before you have compassion on Jerusalem ³⁰  and the other cities of Judah which you have been so angry with for these seventy years?” ³¹ 

Revelation 6:10

6:10 They ³²  cried out with a loud voice, ³³  “How long, ³⁴  Sovereign Master, ³⁵  holy and true, before you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?”

[42:14]  ¹ tn Heb “silent” (so NASB, NIV, TEV, NLT); CEV “have held my temper.”

[42:14]  ² sn The imagery depicts the Lord as a warrior who is eager to fight and can no longer hold himself back from the attack.

[10:1]  ³ sn Psalm 10. Many Hebrew mss and the ancient Greek version (LXX) combine Psalms 9 and 10 into a single psalm. Taken in isolation, Psalm 10 is a petition for help in which the psalmist urges the Lord to deliver him from his dangerous enemies, whom he describes in vivid and terrifying detail. The psalmist concludes with confidence; he is certain that God’s justice will prevail.

[10:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “you hide for times in trouble.” The interrogative “why” is understood by ellipsis; note the preceding line. The Hiphil verbal form “hide” has no expressed object. Some supply “your eyes” by ellipsis (see BDB 761 s.v. I עָלַם Hiph and HALOT 835 s.v. I עלם hif) or emend the form to a Niphal (“you hide yourself,” see BHS, note c; cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV).

[74:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? From the midst of your chest, destroy!” The psalmist pictures God as having placed his right hand (symbolic of activity and strength) inside his robe against his chest. He prays that God would pull his hand out from under his robe and use it to destroy the enemy.

[74:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “remember this.”

[74:18]  ⁷ tn Or “[how] the enemy insults the Lord.”

[74:19]  ⁸ sn Your dove. The psalmist compares weak and vulnerable Israel to a helpless dove.

[74:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “do not forget forever.”

[79:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “How long, O Lord?”

[79:5]  ¹¹ tn Or “jealous anger.”

[80:3]  ¹² tn The idiom “cause your face to shine” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 4:6; 31:16; 44:3; 67:1; 89:15; Dan 9:17).

[80:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “cause your face to shine in order that we may be delivered.” After the imperative, the cohortative with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose/result.

[80:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Lord, God, hosts.” One expects the construct form אֱלֹהֵי (’elohey) before צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot; “hosts”; see Ps 89:9), but יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים (yehvah ’elohim) precedes צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot) in Pss 59:5 and 84:8 as well. In this context the term “hosts” (meaning “armies”) has been rendered “invincible warrior.”

[80:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “How long will you remain angry during the prayer of your people.” Some take the preposition -בְּ (bet) in an adversative sense here (“at/against the prayer of your people”), but the temporal sense is preferable. The psalmist expects persistent prayer to pacify God.

[83:1]  ¹⁶ sn Psalm 83. The psalmist asks God to deliver Israel from the attacks of foreign nations. Recalling how God defeated Israel’s enemies in the days of Deborah and Gideon, he prays that the hostile nations would be humiliated.

[83:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “do not be deaf.”

[89:46]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “How long, O Lord, will hide yourself forever?”

[89:47]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “remember me, what is [my] lifespan.” The Hebrew term חֶלֶד (kheled) is also used of one’s lifespan in Ps 39:5. Because the Hebrew text is so awkward here, some prefer to emend it to read מֶה חָדֵל אָנִי (meh khadel ’aniy, “[remember] how transient [that is, “short-lived”] I am”; see Ps 39:4).

[89:47]  ²⁰ tn Heb “For what emptiness do you create all the sons of mankind?” In this context the term שָׁוְא (shavah) refers to mankind’s mortal nature and the brevity of life (see vv. 45, 48).

[89:48]  ²¹ tn Heb “Who [is] the man [who] can live and not see death, [who] can deliver his life from the hand of Sheol?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “No one!”

[89:49]  ²² sn The Lord’s faithful deeds are also mentioned in Pss 17:7 and 25:6.

[89:49]  ²³ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss read here יְהוָה (yehvah, “the Lord”).

[89:49]  ²⁴ tn Heb “[which] you swore on oath to David by your faithfulness.”

[89:50]  ²⁵ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss read here יְהוָה (yehvah, “the Lord”).

[89:50]  ²⁶ tn Heb “remember, O Lord, the taunt against your servants.” Many medieval Hebrew mss read the singular here, “your servant” (that is, the psalmist).

[89:50]  ²⁷ tn Heb “my lifting up in my arms [or “against my chest”] all of the many, peoples.” The term רַבִּים (rabbim, “many”) makes no apparent sense here. For this reason some emend the text to רִבֵי (rivey, “attacks by”), a defectively written plural construct form of רִיב (riv, “dispute; quarrel”).

[89:51]  ²⁸ tn Heb “[by] which your enemies, O Lord, taunt, [by] which they taunt [at] the heels of your anointed one.”

[1:12]  ²⁹ sn Note that here the angel of the Lord is clearly distinct from the Lord who rules over all himself.

[1:12]  ³⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:12]  ³¹ sn The seventy years refers to the predicted period of Babylonian exile, a period with flexible beginning and ending points depending on the particular circumstances in view (cf. Jer 25:1; 28:1; 29:10; Dan 9:2). Here the end of the seventy years appears to be marked by the completion of the temple in 516 b.c., exactly seventy years after its destruction in 586.

[6:10]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[6:10]  ³³ tn Grk “voice, saying”; the participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated here.

[6:10]  ³⁴ tn The expression ἕως πότε (ews pote) was translated “how long.” Cf. BDAG 423 s.v. ἕως 1.b.γ.

[6:10]  ³⁵ tn The Greek term here is δεσπότης (despoths; see L&N 37.63).