Job 33:24

33:24 and if ¹  God ²  is gracious to him and says,

‘Spare ³  him from going down

to the place of corruption,

I have found a ransom for him,’ ⁴ 

Job 33:28

33:28 He redeemed my life ⁵ 

from going down to the place of corruption,

and my life sees the light!’

Psalms 40:1-2

Psalm 40 ⁶ 

For the music director; By David, a psalm.

40:1 I relied completely ⁷  on the Lord,

and he turned toward me

and heard my cry for help.

40:2 He lifted me out of the watery pit, ⁸ 

out of the slimy mud. ⁹ 

He placed my feet on a rock

and gave me secure footing. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 118:17-18

118:17 I will not die, but live,

and I will proclaim what the Lord has done. ¹¹ 

118:18 The Lord severely ¹²  punished me,

but he did not hand me over to death.

[33:24]  ¹ tn This verse seems to continue the protasis begun in the last verse, with the apodosis coming in the next verse.

[33:24]  ² tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:24]  ³ tc The verb is either taken as an anomalous form of פָּדַע (pada’, “to rescue; to redeem,” or “to exempt him”), or it is emended to some similar word, like פָּרַע (para’, “to let loose,” so Wright).

[33:24]  ⁴ sn This verse and v. 28 should be compared with Ps 49:7-9, 15 (8-10, 16 HT) where the same basic vocabulary and concepts are employed.

[33:28]  ⁵ sn See note on “him” in v. 24.

[40:1]  ⁶ sn Psalm 40. The psalmist combines a song of thanksgiving for a recent act of divine deliverance (vv. 1-11) with a confident petition for renewed divine intervention (vv. 12-17).

[40:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “relying, I relied.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verbal form to emphasize the verbal idea. The emphasis is reflected in the translation through the adverb “completely.” Another option is to translate, “I waited patiently” (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[40:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “cistern of roaring.” The Hebrew noun בּוֹר (bor, “cistern, pit”) is used metaphorically here of Sheol, the place of death, which is sometimes depicted as a raging sea (see Ps 18:4, 15-16). The noun שָׁאוֹן (sha’on, “roaring”) refers elsewhere to the crashing sound of the sea’s waves (see Ps 65:7).

[40:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “from the mud of mud.” The Hebrew phrase translated “slimy mud” employs an appositional genitive. Two synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.

[40:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he established my footsteps.”

[118:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the works of the Lord.”

[118:18]  ¹² tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following verbal idea.