Discovery BoxIsaiah 51:20
Context51:20 Your children faint;
they lie at the head of every street
like an antelope in a snare.
They are left in a stupor by the Lord’s anger,
by the battle cry of your God. 1
Psalms 32:3-4
Context32:3 When I refused to confess my sin, 2
my whole body wasted away, 3
while I groaned in pain all day long.
32:4 For day and night you tormented me; 4
you tried to destroy me 5 in the intense heat 6 of summer. 7 (Selah)
Psalms 38:8
Context38:8 I am numb with pain and severely battered; 8
I groan loudly because of the anxiety I feel. 9
Hosea 7:14
Context7:14 They do not pray to me, 10
but howl in distress on their beds;
They slash themselves 11 for grain and new wine,
but turn away from me.
[51:20] 1 tn Heb “those who are full of the anger of the Lord, the shout [or “rebuke”] of your God.”
[32:3] 2 tn Heb “when I was silent.”
[32:3] 3 tn Heb “my bones became brittle.” The psalmist pictures himself as aging and growing physically weak. Trying to cover up his sin brought severe physical consequences.
[32:4] 4 tn Heb “your hand was heavy upon me.”
[32:4] 5 tc Heb “my [?] was turned.” The meaning of the Hebrew term לְשַׁד (lÿshad) is uncertain. A noun לָשָׁד (lashad, “cake”) is attested in Num 11:8, but it would make no sense to understand that word in this context. It is better to emend the form to לְשֻׁדִּי (lÿshuddiy, “to my destruction”) and understand “your hand” as the subject of the verb “was turned.” In this case the text reads, “[your hand] was turned to my destruction.” In Lam 3:3 the author laments that God’s “hand” was “turned” (הָפַךְ, hafakh) against him in a hostile sense.
[32:4] 6 tn The translation assumes that the plural form indicates degree. If one understands the form as a true plural, then one might translate, “in the times of drought.”
[32:4] 7 sn Summer. Perhaps the psalmist suffered during the hot season and perceived the very weather as being an instrument of divine judgment. Another option is that he compares his time of suffering to the uncomfortable and oppressive heat of summer.
[38:8] 8 tn Heb “I am numb and crushed to excess.”
[38:8] 9 tn Heb “I roar because of the moaning of my heart.”
[7:14] 10 tn Heb “they do not cry out to me in their heart”; NLT “with sincere hearts.”
[7:14] 11 tc The MT reads יִתְגּוֹרָרוּ (yitgoraru) which is either (1) Hitpolel imperfect 3rd person masculine plural (“they assemble themselves”; so KJV, NASB) from I גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn”; BDB 157 s.v. I גּוּר) or (2) Hitpolel imperfect 3rd person masculine plural (“they excite themselves”) from II גּוּר (gur, “to stir up”; BDB 158 s.v. II גּוּר). However, the Hebrew lexicographers suggest that both of these options are unlikely. Several other Hebrew
