Psalms 13:2-4

13:2 How long must I worry, ¹ 

and suffer in broad daylight? ² 

How long will my enemy gloat over me? ³ 

13:3 Look at me! ⁴  Answer me, O Lord my God!

Revive me, ⁵  or else I will die! ⁶ 

13:4 Then ⁷  my enemy will say, “I have defeated him!”

Then ⁸  my foes will rejoice because I am upended.

[13:2]  ¹ tn Heb “How long will I put counsel in my being?”

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

[13:2]  ³ tn Heb “be exalted over me.” Perhaps one could translate, “How long will my enemy defeat me?”

[13:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “see.”

[13:3]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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.”

[13:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “or else.”

[13:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “or else.”