Job 19:21

19:21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me,

for the hand of God has struck me.

Psalms 32:4

32:4 For day and night you tormented me; ¹ 

you tried to destroy me ²  in the intense heat ³  of summer. ⁴  (Selah)

Isaiah 48:10-13

48:10 Look, I have refined you, but not as silver;

I have purified you ⁵  in the furnace of misery.

48:11 For my sake alone ⁶  I will act,

for how can I allow my name to be defiled? ⁷ 

I will not share my glory with anyone else! ⁸ 

48:12 Listen to me, O Jacob,

Israel, whom I summoned!

I am the one;

I am present at the very beginning

and at the very end. ⁹ 

48:13 Yes, my hand founded the earth;

my right hand spread out the sky.

I summon them;

they stand together.

[32:4]  ¹ tn Heb “your hand was heavy upon me.”

[32:4]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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.

[48:10]  ⁵ tc The Hebrew text has בְּחַרְתִּיךָ (bÿkhartikha, “I have chosen you”), but the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a reads correctly בחנתיכה (“I have tested you”). The metallurgical background of the imagery suggests that purification through testing is the idea.

[48:11]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew text repeats לְמַעֲנִי (lÿma’ani, “for my sake”) for emphasis.

[48:11]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “for how can it be defiled?” The subject of the verb is probably “name” (v. 9).

[48:11]  ⁸ sn See 42:8.

[48:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “I [am] he, I [am the] first, also I [am the] last.”