Discovery BoxPsalms 18:5-6
Context18:5 The ropes of Sheol tightened around me, 1
the snares of death trapped me. 2
18:6 In my distress I called to the Lord;
I cried out to my God. 3
From his heavenly temple 4 he heard my voice;
he listened to my cry for help. 5
Psalms 61:2
Context61:2 From the most remote place on earth 6
I call out to you in my despair. 7
Lead me 8 up to an inaccessible rocky summit! 9
Psalms 86:13
Context86:13 For you will extend your great loyal love to me, 10
and will deliver my life 11 from the depths of Sheol. 12
Psalms 88:1-7
ContextA song, a psalm written by the Korahites; for the music director; according to the machalath-leannoth style; 14 a well-written song 15 by Heman the Ezrachite.
88:1 O Lord God who delivers me! 16
By day I cry out
and at night I pray before you. 17
Pay attention 19 to my cry for help!
88:3 For my life 20 is filled with troubles
and I am ready to enter Sheol. 21
88:4 They treat me like 22 those who descend into the grave. 23
I am like a helpless man, 24
88:5 adrift 25 among the dead,
like corpses lying in the grave,
whom you remember no more,
and who are cut off from your power. 26
88:6 You place me in the lowest regions of the pit, 27
in the dark places, in the watery depths.
88:7 Your anger bears down on me,
and you overwhelm me with all your waves. (Selah)
Psalms 116:3
Context116:3 The ropes of death tightened around me, 28
the snares 29 of Sheol confronted me.
I was confronted 30 with trouble and sorrow.
[18:5] 1 tn Heb “surrounded me.”
[18:5] 2 tn Heb “confronted me.”
[18:6] 3 tn In this poetic narrative context the four prefixed verbal forms in v. 6 are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects.
[18:6] 4 tn Heb “from his temple.” Verse 10, which pictures God descending from the sky, indicates that the heavenly temple is in view, not the earthly one.
[18:6] 5 tc Heb “and my cry for help before him came into his ears.” 2 Sam 22:7 has a shorter reading, “my cry for help, in his ears.” It is likely that Ps 18:6 MT as it now stands represents a conflation of two readings: (1) “my cry for help came before him,” (2) “my cry for help came into his ears.” See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBLDS), 144, n. 13.
[61:2] 6 tn Heb “from the end of the earth.” This may indicate (1) the psalmist is exiled in a distant land, or (2) it may be hyperbolic (the psalmist feels alienated from God’s presence, as if he were in a distant land).
[61:2] 7 tn Heb “while my heart faints.”
[61:2] 8 tn The imperfect verbal form here expresses the psalmist’s wish or prayer.
[61:2] 9 tn Heb “on to a rocky summit [that] is higher than I.”
[86:13] 10 tn Heb “for your loyal love [is] great over me.”
[86:13] 11 tn Or “for he will have delivered my life.” The verb form indicates a future perfect here.
[86:13] 12 tn Or “lower Sheol.”
[88:1] 13 sn Psalm 88. The psalmist cries out in pain to the Lord, begging him for relief from his intense and constant suffering. The psalmist regards God as the ultimate cause of his distress, but nevertheless clings to God in hope.
[88:1] 14 tn The Hebrew phrase מָחֲלַת לְעַנּוֹת (makhalat lÿ’annot) may mean “illness to afflict.” Perhaps it refers to a particular style of music, a tune title, or a musical instrument. The term מָחֲלַת also appears in the superscription of Ps 53.
[88:1] 15 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.
[88:1] 16 tn Heb “O
[88:1] 17 tn Heb “[by] day I cry out, in the night before you.”
[88:2] 18 tn Heb “may my prayer come before you.” The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive, indicating the psalmist’s desire or prayer.
[88:2] 19 tn Heb “turn your ear.”
[88:3] 21 tn Heb “and my life approaches Sheol.”
[88:4] 22 tn Heb “I am considered with.”
[88:4] 23 tn Heb “the pit.” The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit,” “cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead.
[88:4] 24 tn Heb “I am like a man [for whom] there is no help.”
[88:5] 26 tn Heb “from your hand.”
[88:6] 27 tn The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit,” “cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead. See v. 4.
[116:3] 28 tn Heb “surrounded me.”
[116:3] 29 tn The Hebrew noun מצר (“straits; distress”) occurs only here, Ps 118:5 and Lam 1:3. If retained, it refers to Sheol as a place where one is confined or severely restricted (cf. BDB 865 s.v. מֵצַר, “the straits of Sheol”; NIV “the anguish of the grave”; NRSV “the pangs of Sheol”). However, HALOT 624 s.v. מֵצַר suggests an emendation to מְצָדֵי (mÿtsadey, “snares of”), a rare noun attested in Job 19:6 and Eccl 7:26. This proposal, which is reflected in the translation, produces better parallelism with “ropes” in the preceding line.
[116:3] 30 tn The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls the crisis from which the Lord delivered him.
