Psalms 8:5

8:5 and make them a little less than the heavenly beings? ¹ 

You grant mankind ²  honor and majesty; ³ 

Psalms 63:9

63:9 Enemies seek to destroy my life, ⁴ 

but they will descend into the depths of the earth. ⁵ 

Psalms 139:15

139:15 my bones were not hidden from you,

when ⁶  I was made in secret

and sewed together in the depths of the earth. ⁷ 

Matthew 12:40

12:40 For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish ⁸  for three days and three nights, ⁹  so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.

Hebrews 2:7

2:7 You made him lower than the angels for a little while.

You crowned him with glory and honor. ¹⁰ 

Hebrews 2:9

2:9 but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, ¹¹  now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, ¹²  so that by God’s grace he would experience ¹³  death on behalf of everyone.

[8:5]  ¹ tn Heb “and you make him lack a little from [the] gods [or “God”].” The Piel form of חָסַר (khasar, “to decrease, to be devoid”) is used only here and in Eccl 4:8, where it means “to deprive, to cause to be lacking.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive either carries on the characteristic nuance of the imperfect in v. 5b or indicates a consequence (“so that you make him…”) of the preceding statement (see GKC 328 §111.m). Some prefer to make this an independent clause and translate it as a new sentence, “You made him….” In this case the statement might refer specifically to the creation of the first human couple, Adam and Eve (cf. Gen 1:26-27). The psalmist does appear to allude to Gen 1:26-27, where mankind is created in the image of God and his angelic assembly (note “let us make man in our image” in Gen 1:26). However, the psalmist’s statement need not be limited in its focus to that historical event, for all mankind shares the image imparted to the first human couple. Consequently the psalmist can speak in general terms of the exalted nature of mankind. The referent of אֱלֹהִים (’elohim, “God” or “the heavenly beings”) is unclear. Some understand this as a reference to God alone, but the allusion to Gen 1:26-27 suggests a broader referent, including God and the other heavenly beings (known in other texts as “angels”). The term אֱלֹהִים is also used in this way in Gen 3:5, where the serpent says to the woman, “you will be like the heavenly beings who know good and evil.” (Note Gen 3:22, where God says, “the man has become like one of us.”) Also אֱלֹהִים may refer to the members of the heavenly assembly in Ps 82:1, 6. The LXX (the ancient Greek translation of the OT) reads “angels” in Ps 8:5 (this is the source of the quotation of Ps 8:5 in Heb 2:7).

[8:5]  ² tn Heb “you crown him [with].” The imperfect verbal forms in this and the next line describe God’s characteristic activity.

[8:5]  ³ sn Honor and majesty. These terms allude to mankind’s royal status as God’s vice-regents (cf. v. 6 and Gen 1:26-30).

[63:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “but they for destruction seek my life.” The pronoun “they” must refer here to the psalmist’s enemies, referred to at this point for the first time in the psalm.

[63:9]  ⁵ sn The depths of the earth refers here to the underworld dwelling place of the dead (see Ezek 26:20; 31:14, 16, 18; 32:18, 24). See L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 167.

[139:15]  ⁶ tc The Hebrew term אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “which”) should probably be emended to כֲּאַשֶׁר (ka’asher, “when”). The kaf (כ) may have been lost by haplography (note the kaf at the end of the preceding form).

[139:15]  ⁷ sn The phrase depths of the earth may be metaphorical (euphemistic) or it may reflect a prescientific belief about the origins of the embryo deep beneath the earth’s surface (see H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 96-97). Job 1:21 also closely associates the mother’s womb with the earth.

[12:40]  ⁸ tn Grk “large sea creature.”

[12:40]  ⁹ sn A quotation from Jonah 1:17.

[2:7]  ¹⁰ tc Several witnesses, many of them early and important (א A C D* P Ψ 0243 0278 33 1739 1881 al lat co), have at the end of v 7, “You have given him dominion over the works of your hands.” Other mss, not quite as impressive in weight, lack the words (Ì⁴⁶ B D² Ï). In spite of the impressive external evidence for the longer reading, it is most likely a scribal addition to conform the text of Hebrews to Ps 8:6 (8:7 LXX). Conformity of a NT quotation of the OT to the LXX was a routine scribal activity, and can hardly be in doubt here as to the cause of the longer reading.

[2:9]  ¹¹ tn Or “who was made a little lower than the angels.”

[2:9]  ¹² tn Grk “because of the suffering of death.”

[2:9]  ¹³ tn Grk “would taste.” Here the Greek verb does not mean “sample a small amount” (as a typical English reader might infer from the word “taste”), but “experience something cognitively or emotionally; come to know something” (cf. BDAG 195 s.v. γεύομαι 2).