Psalms 40:2

40:2 He lifted me out of the watery pit, ¹ 

out of the slimy mud. ² 

He placed my feet on a rock

and gave me secure footing. ³ 

Psalms 88:6

88:6 You place me in the lowest regions of the pit, ⁴ 

in the dark places, in the watery depths.

Psalms 88:8

88:8 You cause those who know me to keep their distance;

you make me an appalling sight to them.

I am trapped and cannot get free. ⁵ 

Psalms 130:1-2

Psalm 130 ⁶ 

A song of ascents. ⁷ 

130:1 From the deep water ⁸  I cry out to you, O Lord.

130:2 O Lord, listen to me! ⁹ 

Pay attention to ¹⁰  my plea for mercy!

Jeremiah 38:6

38:6 So the officials ¹¹  took Jeremiah and put him in the cistern ¹²  of Malkijah, one of the royal princes, ¹³  that was in the courtyard of the guardhouse. There was no water in the cistern, only mud. So when they lowered Jeremiah into the cistern with ropes he sank in the mud. ¹⁴ 

Lamentations 3:52-55

צ (Tsade)

3:52 For no good reason ¹⁵  my enemies

hunted me down ¹⁶  like a bird.

3:53 They shut me ¹⁷  up in a pit

and threw stones at me.

3:54 The waters closed over my head;

I thought ¹⁸  I was about to die. ¹⁹ 

ק (Qof)

3:55 I have called on your name, O Lord,

from the deepest pit. ²⁰ 

Zechariah 9:11

9:11 Moreover, as for you, because of our covenant relationship secured with blood, I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit.

[40:2]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “he established my footsteps.”

[88:6]  ⁴ tn The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit,” “cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead. See v. 4.

[88:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “[I am] confined and I cannot go out.”

[130:1]  ⁶ sn Psalm 130. The psalmist, confident of the Lord’s forgiveness, cries out to the Lord for help in the midst of his suffering and urges Israel to do the same.

[130:1]  ⁷ sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[130:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “depths,” that is, deep waters (see Ps 69:2, 14; Isa 51:10), a metaphor for the life-threatening danger faced by the psalmist.

[130:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “my voice.”

[130:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “may your ears be attentive to the voice of.”

[38:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they.”

[38:6]  ¹² sn A cistern was a pear-shaped pit with a narrow opening. Cisterns were cut or dug in the limestone rock and lined with plaster to prevent seepage. They were used to collect and store rain water or water carried up from a spring.

[38:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “the son of the king.” See the translator’s note on Jer 36:26 for the rendering here.

[38:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “And they let Jeremiah down with ropes and in the cistern there was no water, only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.” The clauses have been reordered and restructured to create a more natural and smoother order in English.

[3:52]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “without cause.”

[3:52]  ¹⁶ tn The construction צוֹד צָדוּנִי (tsod tsaduni, “they have hunted me down”) is emphatic: Qal infinitive absolute of the same root of Qal perfect 3rd person common plural + 1st person common singular suffix.

[3:53]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “my life.”

[3:54]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I said,” meaning “I said to myself” = “I thought.”

[3:54]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “I was about to be cut off.” The verb נִגְזָרְתִּי (nigzarti), Niphal perfect 1st person common singular from גָּזַר (gazar, “to be cut off”), functions in an ingressive sense: “about to be cut off.” It is used in reference to the threat of death (e.g., Ezek 37:11). To be “cut off” from the hand of the living means to experience death (Ps 88:6).

[3:55]  ²⁰ tn Heb “from a pit of lowest places.”