Job 10:9

10:9 Remember that you have made me as with ¹  the clay;

will ²  you return me to dust?

Genesis 42:36

42:36 Their father Jacob said to them, “You are making me childless! Joseph is gone. ³  Simeon is gone. ⁴  And now you want to take ⁵  Benjamin! Everything is against me.”

Nehemiah 1:8

1:8 Please recall the word you commanded your servant Moses: ‘If you act unfaithfully, I will scatter you among the nations. ⁶ 

Psalms 74:18

74:18 Remember how ⁷  the enemy hurls insults, O Lord, ⁸ 

and how a foolish nation blasphemes your name!

Psalms 74:22

74:22 Rise up, O God! Defend your honor! ⁹ 

Remember how fools insult you all day long! ¹⁰ 

Psalms 89:47

89:47 Take note of my brief lifespan! ¹¹ 

Why do you make all people so mortal? ¹² 

Psalms 89:50

89:50 Take note, O Lord, ¹³  of the way your servants are taunted, ¹⁴ 

and of how I must bear so many insults from people! ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 15:15

15:15 I said, ¹⁶ 

“Lord, you know how I suffer. ¹⁷ 

Take thought of me and care for me.

Pay back for me those who have been persecuting me.

Do not be so patient with them that you allow them to kill me.

Be mindful of how I have put up with their insults for your sake.

[10:9]  ¹ tn The preposition “like” creates a small tension here. So some ignore the preposition and read “clay” as an adverbial accusative of the material (GKC 371 §117.hh but cf. 379 §119.i with reference to beth essentiae: “as it were, by clay”). The NIV gets around the problem with a different meaning for the verb: “you molded me like clay.” Some suggest the meaning was “as [with] clay” (in the same manner that we have “as [in] the day of Midian” [Isa 9:4]).

[10:9]  ² tn The text has a conjunction: “and to dust….”

[42:36]  ³ tn Heb “is not.”

[42:36]  ⁴ tn Heb “is not.”

[42:36]  ⁵ tn The nuance of the imperfect verbal form is desiderative here.

[1:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “peoples.”

[74:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “remember this.”

[74:18]  ⁸ tn Or “[how] the enemy insults the Lord.”

[74:22]  ⁹ tn Or “defend your cause.”

[74:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “remember your reproach from a fool all the day.”

[89:47]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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).

[89:50]  ¹³ tc Many medieval Hebrew mss read here יְהוָה (yehvah, “the Lord”).

[89:50]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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”).

[15:15]  ¹⁶ tn The words “I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to mark the shift from the Lord speaking to Jerusalem, to Jeremiah speaking to God.

[15:15]  ¹⁷ tn The words “how I suffer” are not in the text but are implicit from the continuation. They are supplied in the translation for clarity. Jeremiah is not saying “you are all knowing.”