Psalms 39:1-2

Psalm 39 ¹ 

For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of David.

39:1 I decided, ²  “I will watch what I say

and make sure I do not sin with my tongue. ³ 

I will put a muzzle over my mouth

while in the presence of an evil man.” ⁴ 

39:2 I was stone silent; ⁵ 

I held back the urge to speak. ⁶ 

My frustration grew; ⁷ 

Psalms 39:9

39:9 I am silent and cannot open my mouth

because of what you have done. ⁸ 

Isaiah 53:7

53:7 He was treated harshly and afflicted, ⁹ 

but he did not even open his mouth.

Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block,

like a sheep silent before her shearers,

he did not even open his mouth. ¹⁰ 

Matthew 27:12-14

27:12 But when he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he did not respond. 27:13 Then Pilate said to him, “Don’t you hear how many charges they are bringing against you?” 27:14 But he did not answer even one accusation, so that the governor was quite amazed.

Acts 8:32

8:32 Now the passage of scripture the man ¹¹  was reading was this:

“He was led like a sheep to slaughter,

and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,

so he did ¹²  not open his mouth.

Acts 8:1

8:1 And Saul agreed completely with killing ¹³  him.

Saul Begins to Persecute the Church

Now on that day a great ¹⁴  persecution began ¹⁵  against the church in Jerusalem, ¹⁶  and all ¹⁷  except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions ¹⁸  of Judea and Samaria.

Acts 2:23

2:23 this man, who was handed over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you executed ¹⁹  by nailing him to a cross at the hands of Gentiles. ²⁰ 

[39:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 39. The psalmist laments his frailty and mortality as he begs the Lord to take pity on him and remove his disciplinary hand.

[39:1]  ² tn Heb “I said.”

[39:1]  ³ tn Heb “I will watch my ways, from sinning with my tongue.”

[39:1]  ⁴ sn The psalmist wanted to voice a lament to the Lord (see vv. 4-6), but he hesitated to do so in the presence of evil men, for such words might be sinful if they gave the wicked an occasion to insult God. See C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 1:345.

[39:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “I was mute [with] silence.”

[39:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “I was quiet from good.” He kept quiet, resisting the urge to find emotional release and satisfaction by voicing his lament.

[39:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “and my pain was stirred up.” Emotional pain is in view here.

[39:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “because you acted.” The psalmist has in mind God’s disciplinary measures (see vv. 10-13).

[53:7]  ⁹ tn The translation assumes the Niphal is passive; another option is take the clause (note the subject + verb pattern) as concessive and the Niphal as reflexive, “though he humbled himself.”

[53:7]  ¹⁰ sn This verse emphasizes the servant’s silent submission. The comparison to a sheep does not necessarily suggest a sacrificial metaphor. Sheep were slaughtered for food as well as for sacrificial rituals, and טֶבַח (tevakh) need not refer to sacrificial slaughter (see Gen 43:16; Prov 7:22; 9:2; Jer 50:27; note also the use of the related verb in Exod 21:37; Deut 28:31; 1 Sam 25:11).

[8:32]  ¹¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (the man) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:32]  ¹² tn Grk “does.” The present tense here was translated as a past tense to maintain consistency with the first line of the quotation (“he was led like a sheep to slaughter”), which has an aorist passive verb normally translated as a past tense in English.

[8:1]  ¹³ tn The term ἀναίρεσις (anairesi") can refer to murder (BDAG 64 s.v.; 2 Macc 5:13; Josephus, Ant. 5.2.12 [5.165]).

[8:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or “severe.”

[8:1]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “Now there happened on that day a great persecution.” It is less awkward to say in English “Now on that day a great persecution began.”

[8:1]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:1]  ¹⁷ sn All. Given that the Jerusalem church is still active after this and that the Hellenists are the focus of Acts 6-8, it is possible to argue that only the Hellenistic Christians were forced to scatter.

[8:1]  ¹⁸ tn Or “countryside.”

[2:23]  ¹⁹ tn Or “you killed.”

[2:23]  ²⁰ tn Grk “at the hands of lawless men.” At this point the term ἄνομος (anomo") refers to non-Jews who live outside the Jewish (Mosaic) law, rather than people who broke any or all laws including secular laws. Specifically it is a reference to the Roman soldiers who carried out Jesus’ crucifixion.