Psalms 13:1-3

Psalm 13 ¹ 

For the music director; a psalm of David.

13:1 How long, Lord, will you continue to ignore me? ² 

How long will you pay no attention to me? ³ 

13:2 How long must I worry, ⁴ 

and suffer in broad daylight? ⁵ 

How long will my enemy gloat over me? ⁶ 

13:3 Look at me! ⁷  Answer me, O Lord my God!

Revive me, ⁸  or else I will die! ⁹ 

Psalms 27:9

27:9 Do not reject me! ¹⁰ 

Do not push your servant away in anger!

You are my deliverer! ¹¹ 

Do not forsake or abandon me,

O God who vindicates me!

Psalms 30:7

30:7 O Lord, in your good favor you made me secure. ¹² 

Then you rejected me ¹³  and I was terrified.

Psalms 44:24

44:24 Why do you look the other way, ¹⁴ 

and ignore ¹⁵  the way we are oppressed and mistreated? ¹⁶ 

Psalms 88:14

88:14 O Lord, why do you reject me,

and pay no attention to me? ¹⁷ 

Job 13:24

13:24 Why do you hide your face ¹⁸ 

and regard me as your enemy?

Job 23:9

23:9 In the north ¹⁹  when he is at work, ²⁰ 

I do not see him; ²¹ 

when he turns ²²  to the south,

I see no trace of him.

Job 34:29

34:29 But if God ²³  is quiet, who can condemn ²⁴  him?

If he hides his face, then who can see him?

Yet ²⁵  he is over the individual and the nation alike, ²⁶ 

[13:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 13. The psalmist, who is close to death, desperately pleads for God’s deliverance and affirms his trust in God’s faithfulness.

[13:1]  ² tn Heb “will you forget me continually.”

[13:1]  ³ tn Heb “will you hide your face from me.”

[13:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “How long will I put counsel in my being?”

[13:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “[with] grief in my heart by day.”

[13:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “be exalted over me.” Perhaps one could translate, “How long will my enemy defeat me?”

[13:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “see.”

[13:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “Give light [to] my eyes.” The Hiphil of אוּר (’ur), when used elsewhere with “eyes” as object, refers to the law of God giving moral enlightenment (Ps 19:8), to God the creator giving literal eyesight to all people (Prov 29:13), and to God giving encouragement to his people (Ezra 9:8). Here the psalmist pictures himself as being on the verge of death. His eyes are falling shut and, if God does not intervene soon, he will “fall asleep” for good.

[13:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “or else I will sleep [in?] the death.” Perhaps the statement is elliptical, “I will sleep [the sleep] of death,” or “I will sleep [with the sleepers in] death.”

[27:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “do not hide your face from me.” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).

[27:9]  ¹¹ tn Or “[source of] help.”

[30:7]  ¹² tn Heb “in your good favor you caused to stand for my mountain strength.” Apparently this means “you established strength for my mountain” (“mountain” in this case representing his rule, which would be centered on Mt. Zion) or “you established strength as my mountain” (“mountain” in this case being a metaphor for security).

[30:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “you hid your face.” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or, as here, carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Ps 88:14).

[44:24]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Why do you hide your face?” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).

[44:24]  ¹⁵ tn Or “forget.”

[44:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “our oppression and our affliction.”

[88:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “[why] do you hide your face from me?”

[13:24]  ¹⁸ sn The anthropomorphism of “hide the face” indicates a withdrawal of favor and an outpouring of wrath (see Ps 30:7 [8]; Isa 54:8; Ps 27:9). Sometimes God “hides his face” to make himself invisible or aloof (see 34:29). In either case, if God covers his face it is because he considers Job an enemy – at least this is what Job thinks.

[23:9]  ¹⁹ sn The text has “the left hand,” the Semitic idiom for directions. One faces the rising sun, and so left is north, right is south.

[23:9]  ²⁰ tc The form בַּעֲשֹׂתוֹ (ba’asoto) would be the temporal clause using the infinitive construct with a pronoun (subject genitive). This would be “when he works.” Several follow the Syriac with “I seek him.” The LXX has “[when] he turns.” R. Gordis (Job, 261) notes that there is no need to emend the text; he shows a link to the Arabic cognate ghasa, “to cover.” To him this is a perfect parallel to יַעְטֹף (ya’tof, “covers himself”).

[23:9]  ²¹ tn The verb is the apocopated form of the imperfect. The object is supplied.

[23:9]  ²² tn The MT has “he turns,” but the Syriac and Vulgate have “I turn.”

[34:29]  ²³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:29]  ²⁴ tn The verb in this position is somewhat difficult, although it does make good sense in the sentence – it is just not what the parallelism would suggest. So several emendations have been put forward, for which see the commentaries.

[34:29]  ²⁵ tn The line simply reads “and over a nation and over a man together.” But it must be the qualification for the points being made in the previous lines, namely, that even if God hides himself so no one can see, yet he is still watching over them all (see H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 222).

[34:29]  ²⁶ tn The word translated “alike” (Heb “together”) has bothered some interpreters. In the reading taken here it is acceptable. But others have emended it to gain a verb, such as “he visits” (Beer), “he watches over” (Duhm), “he is compassionate” (Kissane), etc. But it is sufficient to say “he is over.”