Psalms 71:20-21

71:20 Though you have allowed me to experience much trouble and distress, ¹ 

revive me once again! ² 

Bring me up once again ³  from the depths of the earth!

71:21 Raise me to a position of great honor! ⁴ 

Turn and comfort me! ⁵ 

Isaiah 26:19

26:19 ⁶ Your dead will come back to life;

your corpses will rise up.

Wake up and shout joyfully, you who live in the ground! ⁷ 

For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, ⁸ 

and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits. ⁹ 

Isaiah 50:10

50:10 Who among you fears the Lord?

Who obeys ¹⁰  his servant?

Whoever walks in deep darkness, ¹¹ 

without light,

should trust in the name of the Lord

and rely on his God.

[71:20]  ¹ tn Heb “you who have caused me to see many harmful distresses.”

[71:20]  ² tn Heb “you return, you give me life.” The Hebrew term שׁוּב (shuv, “return”) is used here in an adverbial sense, indicating repetition of the action described by the following verb. The imperfects are understood here as expressing the psalmist’s prayer or wish. (Note the use of a distinctly jussive form at the beginning of v. 21.) Another option is to understand this as a statement of confidence, “you will revive me once again” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[71:20]  ³ tn Heb “you return, you bring me up.” The Hebrew term שׁוּב (shuv, “return”) is used here in an adverbial sense, indicating repetition of the action described by the following verb. The imperfects are understood here as expressing the psalmist’s prayer or wish. (Note the use of a distinctly jussive form at the beginning of v. 21.) Another option is to understand this as a statement of confidence, “you will bring me up once again” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[71:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “increase my greatness.” The prefixed verbal form is distinctly jussive, indicating this is a prayer or wish. The psalmist’s request for “greatness” (or “honor”) is not a boastful, self-serving prayer for prominence, but, rather, a request that God would vindicate by elevating him over those who are trying to humiliate him.

[71:21]  ⁵ tn The imperfects are understood here as expressing the psalmist’s prayer or wish. (Note the use of a distinctly jussive form at the beginning of v. 21.)

[26:19]  ⁶ sn At this point the Lord (or prophet) gives the people an encouraging oracle.

[26:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “dust” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[26:19]  ⁸ tn Heb “for the dew of lights [is] your dew.” The pronominal suffix on “dew” is masculine singular, like the suffixes on “your dead” and “your corpses” in the first half of the verse. The statement, then, is addressed to collective Israel, the speaker in verse 18. The plural form אוֹרֹת (’orot) is probably a plural of respect or magnitude, meaning “bright light” (i.e., morning’s light). Dew is a symbol of fertility and life. Here Israel’s “dew,” as it were, will soak the dust of the ground and cause the corpses of the dead to spring up to new life, like plants sprouting up from well-watered soil.

[26:19]  ⁹ sn It is not certain whether the resurrection envisioned here is intended to be literal or figurative. A comparison with 25:8 and Dan 12:2 suggests a literal interpretation, but Ezek 37:1-14 uses resurrection as a metaphor for deliverance from exile and the restoration of the nation (see Isa 27:12-13).

[50:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[who] listens to the voice of his servant?” The interrogative is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[50:10]  ¹¹ tn The plural indicates degree. Darkness may refer to exile and/or moral evil.