Psalms 42:4

42:4 I will remember and weep! ¹ 

For I was once walking along with the great throng to the temple of God,

shouting and giving thanks along with the crowd as we celebrated the holy festival. ² 

Psalms 62:8

62:8 Trust in him at all times, you people!

Pour out your hearts before him! ³ 

God is our shelter! (Selah)

Psalms 142:2-3

142:2 I pour out my lament before him;

I tell him about ⁴  my troubles.

142:3 Even when my strength leaves me, ⁵ 

you watch my footsteps. ⁶ 

In the path where I walk

they have hidden a trap for me.

Psalms 143:6

143:6 I spread my hands out to you in prayer; ⁷ 

my soul thirsts for you in a parched ⁸  land. ⁹ 

Lamentations 2:19

ק (Qof)

2:19 Get up! Cry out in the night ¹⁰ 

when the night watches start! ¹¹ 

Pour out your heart ¹²  like water

before the face of the Lord! ¹³ 

Lift up your hands ¹⁴  to him

for your children’s lives; ¹⁵ 

they are fainting ¹⁶ 

at every street corner. ¹⁷ 

[42:4]  ¹ tn Heb “These things I will remember and I will pour out upon myself my soul.” “These things” are identified in the second half of the verse as those times when the psalmist worshiped in the Lord’s temple. The two cohortative forms indicate the psalmist’s resolve to remember and weep. The expression “pour out upon myself my soul” refers to mourning (see Job 30:16).

[42:4]  ² tc Heb “for I was passing by with the throng [?], I was walking with [?] them to the house of God; with a voice of a ringing shout and thanksgiving a multitude was observing a festival.” The Hebrew phrase בַּסָּךְ אֶדַּדֵּם (bassakh ’eddaddem, “with the throng [?] I was walking with [?]”) is particularly problematic. The noun סָךְ (sakh) occurs only here. If it corresponds to הָמוֹן (hamon, “multitude”) then one can propose a meaning “throng.” The present translation assumes this reading (cf. NIV, NRSV). The form אֶדַּדֵּם (“I will walk with [?]”) is also very problematic. The form can be taken as a Hitpael from דָּדָה (dadah; this verb possibly appears in Isa 38:15), but the pronominal suffix is problematic. For this reason many emend the form to ם[י]אַדִּרִ (’adirim, “nobles”) or ם-רִ[י]אַדִ (’adirim, “great,” with enclitic mem [ם]). The present translation understands the latter and takes the adjective “great” as modifying “throng.” If one emends סָךְ (sakh, “throng [?]”) to סֹךְ (sokh, “shelter”; see the Qere of Ps 27:5), then ר[י]אַדִּ (’addir) could be taken as a divine epithet, “[in the shelter of] the majestic one,” a reading which may find support in the LXX and Syriac Peshitta.

[62:8]  ³ tn To “pour out one’s heart” means to offer up to God intense, emotional lamentation and petitionary prayers (see Lam 2:19).

[142:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “my trouble before him I declare.”

[142:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “my spirit grows faint.”

[142:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “you know my path.”

[143:6]  ⁷ tn The words “in prayer” are supplied in the translation to clarify that the psalmist is referring to a posture of prayer.

[143:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “faint” or “weary.” See Ps 63:1.

[143:6]  ⁹ tc Heb “my soul like a faint land for you.” A verb (perhaps “thirsts”) is implied (see Ps 63:1). The translation assumes an emendation of the preposition -כְּ (kÿ, “like”) to -בְּ (bÿ, “in,” see Ps 63:1; cf. NEB “athirst for thee in a thirsty land”). If the MT is retained, one might translate, “my soul thirsts for you, as a parched land does for water/rain” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[2:19]  ¹⁰ tc The Kethib is written בַּלַּיִל (ballayil) a defective spelling for בַּלַּיְלָה (ballaylah, “night”). The Qere reads בַּלַּיְלָה (ballaylah, “night”), which is preserved in numerous medieval Hebrew mss.

[2:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “at the head of the watches.”

[2:19]  ¹² tn The noun לֵבָב (levav, “heart”) functions here as a metonymy of association for the thoughts and emotions in the heart. The Hebrew לֵבָב (levav) includes the mind so that in some cases the translation “heart” implies an inappropriate division between the cognitive and affective. This context is certainly emotionally loaded, but as part of a series of admonitions to address God in prayer, these emotions are inextricably bound with the thoughts of the mind. The singular “heart” is retained in the translation to be consistent with the personification of Jerusalem (cf. v. 18).

[2:19]  ¹³ tc The MT reads אֲדֹנָי (’adonay, “the Lord”) here rather than יהוה (YHWH, “the Lord”). See the tc note at 1:14.

[2:19]  ¹⁴ sn Lifting up the palms or hands is a metaphor for prayer.

[2:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “on account of the life of your children.” The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) refers to the “life” of their dying children (e.g., Lam 2:12). The singular noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “life”) is used as a collective, as the plural genitive noun that follows makes clear: “your children.”

[2:19]  ¹⁶ tc The BHS editors and many commentators suggest that the fourth bicola in 2:19 is a late addition and should be deleted. Apart from the four sets of bicola in 1:7 and 2:19, every stanza in chapters 1-4 consists of three sets of bicola.

[2:19]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “at the head of every street.”