Psalms 144:3

144:3 O Lord, of what importance is the human race, ¹  that you should notice them?

Of what importance is mankind, ²  that you should be concerned about them? ³ 

Psalms 144:2

144:2 who loves me ⁴  and is my stronghold,

my refuge ⁵  and my deliverer,

my shield and the one in whom I take shelter,

who makes nations submit to me. ⁶ 

Psalms 6:1

Psalm 6 ⁷ 

For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments, according to the sheminith style; ⁸  a psalm of David.

6:1 Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger!

Do not discipline me in your raging fury! ⁹ 

Job 7:17

Insignificance of Humans

7:17 “What is mankind ¹⁰  that you make so much of them, ¹¹ 

and that you pay attention ¹²  to them?

Job 25:6

25:6 how much less a mortal man, who is but a maggot ¹³  –

a son of man, who is only a worm!”

Isaiah 40:17

40:17 All the nations are insignificant before him;

they are regarded as absolutely nothing. ¹⁴ 

Hebrews 2:6-9

2:6 Instead someone testified somewhere:

“What is man that you think of him ¹⁵  or the son of man that you care for him?

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

You crowned him with glory and honor. ¹⁶ 

2:8 You put all things under his control.” ¹⁷ 

For when he put all things under his control, he left nothing outside of his control. At present we do not yet see all things under his control, ¹⁸  2:9 but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, ¹⁹  now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, ²⁰  so that by God’s grace he would experience ²¹  death on behalf of everyone.

[144:3]  ¹ tn Heb “What is mankind?” The singular noun אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh) is used here in a collective sense and refers to the human race. See Ps 8:5.

[144:3]  ² tn Heb “and the son of man.” The phrase “son of man” is used here in a collective sense and refers to human beings. For other uses of the phrase in a collective or representative manner, see Num 23:19; Ps 146:3; Isa 51:12.

[144:3]  ³ tn Heb “take account of him.” The two imperfect verbal forms in v. 4 describe God’s characteristic activity.

[144:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “my loyal love,” which is probably an abbreviated form of “the God of my loyal love” (see Ps 59:10, 17).

[144:2]  ⁵ tn Or “my elevated place.”

[144:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “the one who subdues nations beneath me.”

[6:1]  ⁷ sn Psalm 6. The psalmist begs the Lord to withdraw his anger and spare his life. Having received a positive response to his prayer, the psalmist then confronts his enemies and describes how they retreat.

[6:1]  ⁸ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term שְׁמִינִית (shÿminit, “sheminith”) is uncertain; perhaps it refers to a particular style of music. See 1 Chr 15:21.

[6:1]  ⁹ sn The implication is that the psalmist has sinned, causing God to discipline him by bringing a life-threatening illness upon him (see vv. 2-7).

[7:17]  ¹⁰ tn The verse is a rhetorical question; it is intended to mean that man is too little for God to be making so much over him in all this.

[7:17]  ¹¹ tn The Piel verb is a factitive meaning “to magnify.” The English word “magnify” might not be the best translation here, for God, according to Job, is focusing inordinately on him. It means to magnify in thought, appreciate, think highly of. God, Job argues, is making too much of mankind by devoting so much bad attention on them.

[7:17]  ¹² tn The expression “set your heart on” means “concentrate your mind on” or “pay attention to.”

[25:6]  ¹³ tn The text just has “maggot” and in the second half “worm.” Something has to be added to make it a bit clearer. The terms “maggot” and “worm” describe man in his lowest and most ignominious shape.

[40:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[as derived] from nothing and unformed.”

[2:6]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “remember him.”

[2:7]  ¹⁶ 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.

[2:8]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “you subjected all things under his feet.”

[2:8]  ¹⁸ sn The expression all things under his control occurs three times in 2:8. The latter two occurrences are not exactly identical to the Greek text of Ps 8:6 quoted at the beginning of the verse, but have been adapted by the writer of Hebrews to fit his argument.

[2:9]  ¹⁹ tn Or “who was made a little lower than the angels.”

[2:9]  ²⁰ tn Grk “because of the suffering of death.”

[2:9]  ²¹ 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).