Job 13:15

13:15 Even if he slays me, I will hope in him; ¹ 

I will surely ²  defend ³  my ways to his face!

Psalms 130:1-2

Psalm 130 ⁴ 

A song of ascents. ⁵ 

130:1 From the deep water ⁶  I cry out to you, O Lord.

130:2 O Lord, listen to me! ⁷ 

Pay attention to ⁸  my plea for mercy!

Lamentations 3:53-56

3:53 They shut me ⁹  up in a pit

and threw stones at me.

3:54 The waters closed over my head;

I thought ¹⁰  I was about to die. ¹¹ 

ק (Qof)

3:55 I have called on your name, O Lord,

from the deepest pit. ¹² 

3:56 You heard ¹³  my plea: ¹⁴ 

“Do not close your ears to my cry for relief!” ¹⁵ 

Acts 16:24-25

16:24 Receiving such orders, he threw them in the inner cell ¹⁶  and fastened their feet in the stocks. ¹⁷ 

16:25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying ¹⁸  and singing hymns to God, ¹⁹  and the rest of ²⁰  the prisoners were listening to them.

[13:15]  ¹ tn There is a textual difficulty here that factors into the interpretation of the verse. The Kethib is לֹא (lo’, “not”), but the Qere is לוֹ (lo, “to him”). The RSV takes the former: “Behold, he will slay me, I have no hope.” The NIV takes it as “though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.” Job is looking ahead to death, which is not an evil thing to him. The point of the verse is that he is willing to challenge God at the risk of his life; and if God slays him, he is still confident that he will be vindicated – as he says later in this chapter. Other suggestions are not compelling. E. Dhorme (Job, 187) makes a slight change of אֲיַחֵל (’ayakhel, “I will hope”) to אַחִיל (’akhil, “I will [not] tremble”). A. B. Davidson (Job, 98) retains the MT, but interprets the verb more in line with its use in the book: “I will not wait” (cf. NLT).

[13:15]  ² tn On אַךְ (’akh, “surely”) see GKC 483 §153 on intensive clauses.

[13:15]  ³ tn The verb once again is יָכָה (yakhah, in the Hiphil, “argue a case, plead, defend, contest”). But because the word usually means “accuse” rather than “defend,” I. L. Seeligmann proposed changing “my ways” to “his ways” (“Zur Terminologie für das Gerichtsverfahren im Wortschatz des biblischen Hebräisch,” VTSup 16 [1967]: 251-78). But the word can be interpreted appropriately in the context without emendation.

[130:1]  ⁴ sn Psalm 130. The psalmist, confident of the Lord’s forgiveness, cries out to the Lord for help in the midst of his suffering and urges Israel to do the same.

[130:1]  ⁵ sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[130:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “depths,” that is, deep waters (see Ps 69:2, 14; Isa 51:10), a metaphor for the life-threatening danger faced by the psalmist.

[130:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “my voice.”

[130:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “may your ears be attentive to the voice of.”

[3:53]  ⁹ tn Heb “my life.”

[3:54]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I said,” meaning “I said to myself” = “I thought.”

[3:54]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I was about to be cut off.” The verb נִגְזָרְתִּי (nigzarti), Niphal perfect 1st person common singular from גָּזַר (gazar, “to be cut off”), functions in an ingressive sense: “about to be cut off.” It is used in reference to the threat of death (e.g., Ezek 37:11). To be “cut off” from the hand of the living means to experience death (Ps 88:6).

[3:55]  ¹² tn Heb “from a pit of lowest places.”

[3:56]  ¹³ tn The verb could be understood as a precative, “hear my plea,” parallel to the following volitive verb, “do not close.”

[3:56]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my voice.”

[3:56]  ¹⁵ tn The preposition ל (lamed) continues syntactically from “my plea” in the previous line (e.g. Ex 5:2; Josh 22:2; 1 Sam 8:7; 12:1; Jer 43:4).

[16:24]  ¹⁶ tn Or “prison.”

[16:24]  ¹⁷ tn L&N 6.21 has “stocks” for εἰς τὸ ξύλον (ei" to xulon) here, as does BDAG 685 s.v. ξύλον 2.b. However, it is also possible (as mentioned in L&N 18.12) that this does not mean “stocks” but a block of wood (a log or wooden column) in the prison to which prisoners’ feet were chained or tied. Such a possibility is suggested by v. 26, where the “bonds” (“chains”?) of the prisoners loosened.

[16:25]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “praying, were singing.” The participle προσευχόμενοι (proseucomenoi) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[16:25]  ¹⁹ sn Praying and singing hymns to God. Tertullian said, “The legs feel nothing in the stocks when the heart is in heaven” (To the Martyrs 2; cf. Rom 5:3; Jas 1:2; 1 Pet 5:6). The presence of God means the potential to be free (cf. v. 26).

[16:25]  ²⁰ tn The words “the rest of” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.