Psalms 120:5

120:5 How miserable I am! ¹ 

For I have lived temporarily ²  in Meshech;

I have resided among the tents of Kedar. ³ 

Isaiah 6:5

6:5 I said, “Too bad for me! I am destroyed, ⁴  for my lips are contaminated by sin, ⁵  and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. ⁶  My eyes have seen the king, the Lord who commands armies.” ⁷ 

Isaiah 24:16

24:16 From the ends of the earth we ⁸  hear songs –

the Just One is majestic. ⁹ 

But I ¹⁰  say, “I’m wasting away! I’m wasting away! I’m doomed!

Deceivers deceive, deceivers thoroughly deceive!” ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 4:31

4:31 In fact, ¹²  I hear a cry like that of a woman in labor,

a cry of anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first baby.

It is the cry of Daughter Zion ¹³  gasping for breath,

reaching out for help, ¹⁴  saying, “I am done in! ¹⁵ 

My life is ebbing away before these murderers!”

Jeremiah 15:10

Jeremiah Complains about His Lot and The Lord Responds

15:10 I said, ¹⁶ 

“Oh, mother, how I regret ¹⁷  that you ever gave birth to me!

I am always starting arguments and quarrels with the people of this land. ¹⁸ 

I have not lent money to anyone and I have not borrowed from anyone.

Yet all of these people are treating me with contempt.” ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 45:3

45:3 ‘You have said, “I feel so hopeless! ²⁰  For the Lord has added sorrow to my suffering. ²¹  I am worn out from groaning. I can’t find any rest.”’”

[120:5]  ¹ tn Or “woe to me.” The Hebrew term אוֹיָה (’oyah, “woe”) which occurs only here, is an alternate form of אוֹי (’oy).

[120:5]  ² tn Heb “I live as a resident alien.”

[120:5]  ³ sn Meshech was located in central Anatolia (modern Turkey). Kedar was located in the desert to east-southeast of Israel. Because of the reference to Kedar, it is possible that Ps 120:5 refers to a different Meshech, perhaps one associated with the individual mentioned as a descendant of Aram in 1 Chr 1:17. (However, the LXX in 1 Chr 1:17 follows the parallel text in Gen 10:23, which reads “Mash,” not Meshech.) It is, of course, impossible that the psalmist could have been living in both the far north and the east at the same time. For this reason one must assume that he is recalling his experience as a wanderer among the nations or that he is using the geographical terms metaphorically and sarcastically to suggest that the enemies who surround him are like the barbarians who live in these distant regions. For a discussion of the problem, see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 146.

[6:5]  ⁴ tn Isaiah uses the suffixed (perfect) form of the verb for rhetorical purposes. In this way his destruction is described as occurring or as already completed. Rather than understanding the verb as derived from דָּמַה (damah, “be destroyed”), some take it from a proposed homonymic root דמה, which would mean “be silent.” In this case, one might translate, “I must be silent.”

[6:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “a man unclean of lips am I.” Isaiah is not qualified to praise the king. His lips (the instruments of praise) are “unclean” because he has been contaminated by sin.

[6:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “and among a nation unclean of lips I live.”

[6:5]  ⁷ tn Perhaps in this context, the title has a less militaristic connotation and pictures the Lord as the ruler of the heavenly assembly. See the note at 1:9.

[24:16]  ⁸ sn The identity of the subject is unclear. Apparently in vv. 15-16a an unidentified group responds to the praise they hear in the west by exhorting others to participate.

[24:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “Beauty belongs to the just one.” These words may summarize the main theme of the songs mentioned in the preceding line.

[24:16]  ¹⁰ sn The prophet seems to contradict what he hears the group saying. Their words are premature because more destruction is coming.

[24:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and [with] deception deceivers deceive.”

[4:31]  ¹² tn The particle כִּי (ki) is more likely asseverative here than causal.

[4:31]  ¹³ sn Jerusalem is personified as a helpless maiden.

[4:31]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “spreading out her hands.” The idea of asking or pleading for help is implicit in the figure.

[4:31]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Woe, now to me!” See the translator’s note on 4:13 for the usage of “Woe to…”

[15:10]  ¹⁶ tn The words “I said” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to mark a shift in the speaker.

[15:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Woe to me, my mother.” See the comments on 4:13 and 10:19.

[15:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “A man of strife and a man of contention with all the land.” The “of” relationship (Hebrew and Greek genitive) can convey either subjective or objective relationships, i.e., he instigates strife and contention or he is the object of it. A study of usage elsewhere, e.g., Isa 41:11; Job 31:35; Prov 12:19; 25:24; 26:21; 27:15, is convincing that it is subjective. In his role as God’s covenant messenger charging people with wrong doing he has instigated counterarguments and stirred about strife and contention against him.

[15:10]  ¹⁹ tc The translation follows the almost universally agreed upon correction of the MT. Instead of reading כֻּלֹּה מְקַלְלַונִי (kulloh mÿqallavni, “all of him is cursing me”) as the Masoretes proposed (Qere) one should read קִלְלוּנִי (qilluni) with the written text (Kethib) and redivide and repoint with the suggestion in BHS כֻּלְּהֶם (qullÿhem, “all of them are cursing me”).

[45:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Woe to me!” See the translator’s note on 4:13 and 10:19 for the rendering of this term.

[45:3]  ²¹ sn From the context it appears that Baruch was feeling sorry for himself (v. 5) as well as feeling anguish for the suffering that the nation would need to undergo according to the predictions of Jeremiah that he was writing down.