Psalms 39:13

39:13 Turn your angry gaze away from me, so I can be happy

before I pass away. ¹ 

Psalms 102:24

102:24 I say, “O my God, please do not take me away in the middle of my life! ² 

You endure through all generations. ³ 

Isaiah 38:3

38:3 “Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you ⁴  faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, ⁵  and how I have carried out your will.” ⁶  Then Hezekiah wept bitterly. ⁷ 

[39:13]  ¹ tn Heb “Gaze away from me and I will smile before I go and am not.” The precise identification of the initial verb form (הָשַׁע, hasha’) is uncertain. It could be from the root שָׁעָע (sha’a’, “smear”), but “your eyes” would be the expected object in this case (see Isa 6:10). The verb may be an otherwise unattested Hiphil form of שָׁעָה (sha’ah, “to gaze”) meaning “cause your gaze to be.” Some prefer to emend the form to the Qal שְׁעֵה (shÿ’eh, “gaze”; see Job 14:6). If one does read a form of the verb “to gaze,” the angry divine “gaze” of discipline would seem to be in view (see vv. 10-11). For a similar expression of this sentiment see Job 10:20-21.

[102:24]  ² tn Heb “do not lift me up in the middle of my days.”

[102:24]  ³ tn Heb “in a generation of generations [are] your years.”

[38:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.

[38:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “and with a complete heart”; KJV, ASV “with a perfect heart.”

[38:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”

[38:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “wept with great weeping”; NCV “cried loudly”; TEV “began to cry bitterly.”