Psalms 13:3

13:3 Look at me! ¹  Answer me, O Lord my God!

Revive me, ²  or else I will die! ³ 

Psalms 13:5

13:5 But I ⁴  trust in your faithfulness.

May I rejoice because of your deliverance! ⁵ 

Psalms 18:28

18:28 Indeed, ⁶  you are my lamp, Lord. ⁷ 

My God ⁸  illuminates the darkness around me. ⁹ 

Psalms 30:2

30:2 O Lord my God,

I cried out to you and you healed me. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 30:12

30:12 So now ¹¹  my heart ¹²  will sing to you and not be silent;

O Lord my God, I will always ¹³  give thanks to you.

Psalms 43:4

43:4 Then I will go ¹⁴  to the altar of God,

to the God who gives me ecstatic joy, ¹⁵ 

so that I express my thanks to you, ¹⁶  O God, my God, with a harp.

Psalms 89:26

89:26 He will call out to me,

‘You are my father, ¹⁷  my God, and the protector who delivers me.’ ¹⁸ 

Joshua 14:8

14:8 My countrymen ¹⁹  who accompanied ²⁰  me frightened the people, ²¹  but I remained loyal to the Lord my God. ²² 

Jeremiah 31:18

31:18 I have indeed ²³  heard the people of Israel ²⁴  say mournfully,

‘We were like a calf untrained to the yoke. ²⁵ 

You disciplined us and we learned from it. ²⁶ 

Let us come back to you and we will do so, ²⁷ 

for you are the Lord our God.

Daniel 9:4

9:4 I prayed to the LORD my God, confessing in this way:

“O Lord, ²⁸  great and awesome God who is faithful to his covenant ²⁹  with those who love him and keep his commandments,

Daniel 9:19-20

9:19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, pay attention, and act! Don’t delay, for your own sake, O my God! For your city and your people are called by your name.” ³⁰ 

Gabriel Gives to Daniel a Prophecy of Seventy Weeks

9:20 While I was still speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and presenting my request before the LORD my God concerning his holy mountain ³¹  –

Zechariah 14:5

14:5 Then you will escape ³²  through my mountain valley, for the mountains will extend to Azal. ³³  Indeed, you will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah ³⁴  of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come with all his holy ones with him.

[13:3]  ¹ tn Heb “see.”

[13:3]  ² 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]  ³ 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.”

[13:5]  ⁴ tn The grammatical construction used here (conjunction with independent pronoun) highlights the contrast between the psalmist’s defeated condition envisioned in v. 4 and confident attitude he displays in v. 5.

[13:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “may my heart rejoice in your deliverance.” The verb form is jussive. Having expressed his trust in God’s faithful character and promises, the psalmist prays that his confidence will prove to be well-placed. “Heart” is used here of the seat of the emotions.

[18:28]  ⁶ tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki)is asseverative here.

[18:28]  ⁷ tn Ps 18:28 reads literally, “you light my lamp, Lord.” 2 Sam 22:29 has, “you are my lamp, Lord.” The Ps 18 reading may preserve two variants, נֵרִי (neriy, “my lamp”) and אוֹרִי (’oriy, “my light”), cf. Ps 27:1. The verb תָּאִיר (ta’ir, “you light”) in Ps 18:28 would, in this case, be a corruption of the latter. See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBLDS), 150, n. 64. The metaphor, which likens the Lord to a lamp or light, pictures him as the psalmist’s source of life. For other examples of “lamp” used in this way, see Job 18:6; 21:17; Prov 13:9; 20:20; 24:20. For other examples of “light” as a symbol for life, see Job 3:20; 33:30; Ps 56:13.

[18:28]  ⁸ tn 2 Sam 22:29 repeats the name “Lord.”

[18:28]  ⁹ tn Heb “my darkness.”

[30:2]  ¹⁰ sn You healed me. Apparently the psalmist was plagued by a serious illness that threatened his life. See Ps 41.

[30:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “so that”; or “in order that.”

[30:12]  ¹² tn Heb “glory.” Some view כָבוֹד (khavod, “glory”) here as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (kÿvediy, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 16:9; 57:9; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.” “Heart” is used in the translation above for the sake of English idiom; the expression “my liver sings” would seem odd indeed to the modern reader.

[30:12]  ¹³ tn Or “forever.”

[43:4]  ¹⁴ tn The cohortative expresses the psalmist’s resolve. Prefixed with the vav (ו) conjunctive it also expresses the result or outcome of the preceding verbs “lead” and “escort.”

[43:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to God, the joy of my happiness.” The phrase “joy of my happiness” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the degree of the psalmist’s joy. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.

[43:4]  ¹⁶ tn The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive probably indicates purpose (“so that”) or intention.

[89:26]  ¹⁷ sn You are my father. The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.

[89:26]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the rocky summit of my deliverance.”

[14:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “brothers.”

[14:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “went up with.”

[14:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “made the heart[s] of the people melt.”

[14:8]  ²² tn Heb “I filled up after the Lord my God,” an idiomatic statement meaning that Caleb remained loyal to the Lord.

[31:18]  ²³ tn The use of “indeed” is intended to reflect the infinitive absolute which precedes the verb for emphasis (see IBHS 585-86 §35.3.1f).

[31:18]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Ephraim.” See the study note on 31:9. The more familiar term is used, the term “people” added to it, and plural pronouns used throughout the verse to aid in understanding.

[31:18]  ²⁵ tn Heb “like an untrained calf.” The metaphor is that of a calf who has never been broken to bear the yoke (cf. Hos 4:16; 10:11).

[31:18]  ²⁶ tn The verb here is from the same root as the preceding and is probably an example of the “tolerative Niphal,” i.e., “I let myself be disciplined/I responded to it.” See IBHS 389-90 §23.4g and note the translation of some of the examples there, especially Isa 19:22; 65:1.

[31:18]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Bring me back in order that I may come back.” For the use of the plural pronouns see the marginal note at the beginning of the verse. The verb “bring back” and “come back” are from the same root in two different verbal stems and in the context express the idea of spiritual repentance and restoration of relationship not physical return to the land. (See BDB 999 s.v. שׁוּב Hiph.2.a for the first verb and 997 s.v. Qal.6.c for the second.) For the use of the cohortative to express purpose after the imperative see GKC 320 §108.d or IBHS 575 §34.5.2b.

[9:4]  ²⁸ tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here and in vv. 7, 9, 15, 16, and 19 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[9:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “who keeps the covenant and the loyal love.” The expression is a hendiadys.

[9:19]  ³⁰ tn Heb “for your name is called over your city and your people.” See the note on this expression in v 18.

[9:20]  ³¹ tn Heb “the holy mountain of my God.”

[14:5]  ³² tc For the MT reading נַסְתֶּם (nastem, “you will escape”) the LXX presupposes נִסְתַּם (nistam, “will be stopped up”; this reading is followed by NAB). This appears to derive from a perceived need to eliminate the unexpected “you” as subject. This not only is unnecessary to Hebrew discourse (see “you” in the next clause), but it contradicts the statement in the previous verse that the mountain will be split open, not stopped up.

[14:5]  ³³ sn Azal is a place otherwise unknown.

[14:5]  ³⁴ sn The earthquake in the days of King Uzziah, also mentioned in Amos 1:1, is apparently the one attested to at Hazor in 760 b.c.