Psalms 119:105

נ (Nun)

119:105 Your word ¹  is a lamp to walk by,

and a light to illumine my path. ² 

Psalms 16:10

16:10 You will not abandon me ³  to Sheol; ⁴ 

you will not allow your faithful follower ⁵  to see ⁶  the Pit. ⁷ 

Psalms 78:60

78:60 He abandoned ⁸  the sanctuary at Shiloh,

the tent where he lived among men.

[119:105]  ¹ tn Many medieval Hebrew mss read the plural (“words”).

[119:105]  ² tn Heb “[is] a lamp for my foot and a light for my path.”

[16:10]  ³ tn Or “my life.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.

[16:10]  ⁴ sn In ancient Israelite cosmology Sheol is the realm of the dead, viewed as being under the earth’s surface. See L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 165-76.

[16:10]  ⁵ tn A “faithful follower” (חָסִיד [khasid], traditionally rendered “holy one”) is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God (see Pss 4:3; 12:1; 18:25; 31:23; 37:28; 86:2; 97:10). The psalmist here refers to himself, as the parallel line (“You will not abandon me to Sheol”) indicates.

[16:10]  ⁶ tn That is, “experience.” The psalmist is confident that the Lord will protect him in his present crisis (see v. 1) and prevent him from dying.

[16:10]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew word שָׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 30:9; 49:9; 55:24; 103:4). Note the parallelism with the previous line.

[78:60]  ⁵ tn Or “rejected.”