Psalms 18:6

18:6 In my distress I called to the Lord;

I cried out to my God. ¹ 

From his heavenly temple ²  he heard my voice;

he listened to my cry for help. ³ 

Psalms 40:1-3

Psalm 40 ⁴ 

For the music director; By David, a psalm.

40:1 I relied completely ⁵  on the Lord,

and he turned toward me

and heard my cry for help.

40:2 He lifted me out of the watery pit, ⁶ 

out of the slimy mud. ⁷ 

He placed my feet on a rock

and gave me secure footing. ⁸ 

40:3 He gave me reason to sing a new song, ⁹ 

praising our God. ¹⁰ 

May many see what God has done,

so that they might swear allegiance to him and trust in the Lord! ¹¹ 

Psalms 77:2

77:2 In my time of trouble I sought ¹²  the Lord.

I kept my hand raised in prayer throughout the night. ¹³ 

I ¹⁴  refused to be comforted.

Psalms 107:13

107:13 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;

he delivered them from their troubles.

Psalms 107:19

107:19 They cried out to the Lord in their distress;

he delivered them from their troubles.

Psalms 116:3-4

116:3 The ropes of death tightened around me, ¹⁵ 

the snares ¹⁶  of Sheol confronted me.

I was confronted ¹⁷  with trouble and sorrow.

116:4 I called on the name of the Lord,

“Please Lord, rescue my life!”

Psalms 120:1

Psalm 120 ¹⁸ 

A song of ascents. ¹⁹ 

120:1 In my distress I cried out

to the Lord and he answered me.

Psalms 130:1-2

Psalm 130 ²⁰ 

A song of ascents. ²¹ 

130:1 From the deep water ²²  I cry out to you, O Lord.

130:2 O Lord, listen to me! ²³ 

Pay attention to ²⁴  my plea for mercy!

Genesis 32:7

32:7 Jacob was very afraid and upset. So he divided the people who were with him into two camps, as well as the flocks, herds, and camels.

Genesis 32:9-11

32:9 Then Jacob prayed, ²⁵  “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said ²⁶  to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’ ²⁷  32:10 I am not worthy of all the faithful love ²⁸  you have shown ²⁹  your servant. With only my walking stick ³⁰  I crossed the Jordan, ³¹  but now I have become two camps. 32:11 Rescue me, ³²  I pray, from the hand ³³  of my brother Esau, ³⁴  for I am afraid he will come ³⁵  and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children. ³⁶ 

Genesis 32:1

Jacob Wrestles at Peniel

32:1 So Jacob went on his way and the angels of God ³⁷  met him.

Genesis 30:6-8

30:6 Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me. He has responded to my prayer ³⁸  and given me a son.” That is why ³⁹  she named him Dan. ⁴⁰ 

30:7 Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, became pregnant again and gave Jacob another son. ⁴¹  30:8 Then Rachel said, “I have fought a desperate struggle with my sister, but I have won.” ⁴²  So she named him Naphtali. ⁴³ 

Mark 14:31-36

14:31 But Peter ⁴⁴  insisted emphatically, ⁴⁵  “Even if I must die with you, I will never deny you.” And all of them said the same thing.

Gethsemane

14:32 Then ⁴⁶  they went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus ⁴⁷  said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 14:33 He took Peter, James, ⁴⁸  and John with him, and became very troubled and distressed. 14:34 He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, even to the point of death. Remain here and stay alert.” 14:35 Going a little farther, he threw himself to the ground and prayed that if it were possible the hour would pass from him. 14:36 He said, “Abba, ⁴⁹  Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup ⁵⁰  away from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

[18:6]  ¹ tn In this poetic narrative context the four prefixed verbal forms in v. 6 are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects.

[18:6]  ² tn Heb “from his temple.” Verse 10, which pictures God descending from the sky, indicates that the heavenly temple is in view, not the earthly one.

[18:6]  ³ tc Heb “and my cry for help before him came into his ears.” 2 Sam 22:7 has a shorter reading, “my cry for help, in his ears.” It is likely that Ps 18:6 MT as it now stands represents a conflation of two readings: (1) “my cry for help came before him,” (2) “my cry for help came into his ears.” See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBLDS), 144, n. 13.

[40:1]  ⁴ sn Psalm 40. The psalmist combines a song of thanksgiving for a recent act of divine deliverance (vv. 1-11) with a confident petition for renewed divine intervention (vv. 12-17).

[40:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “relying, I relied.” The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verbal form to emphasize the verbal idea. The emphasis is reflected in the translation through the adverb “completely.” Another option is to translate, “I waited patiently” (cf. NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[40:2]  ⁶ tn Heb “cistern of roaring.” The Hebrew noun בּוֹר (bor, “cistern, pit”) is used metaphorically here of Sheol, the place of death, which is sometimes depicted as a raging sea (see Ps 18:4, 15-16). The noun שָׁאוֹן (sha’on, “roaring”) refers elsewhere to the crashing sound of the sea’s waves (see Ps 65:7).

[40:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “from the mud of mud.” The Hebrew phrase translated “slimy mud” employs an appositional genitive. Two synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. 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.

[40:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “he established my footsteps.”

[40:3]  ⁹ sn A new song was appropriate because the Lord had intervened in the psalmist’s experience in a fresh and exciting way.

[40:3]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and he placed in my mouth a new song, praise to our God.”

[40:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “may many see and fear and trust in the Lord.” The translation assumes that the initial prefixed verbal form is a jussive (“may many see”), rather than an imperfect (“many will see”). The following prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) conjunctive are taken as indicating purpose or result (“so that they might swear allegiance…and trust”) after the introductory jussive.

[77:2]  ¹² tn Here the psalmist refers back to the very recent past, when he began to pray for divine help.

[77:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “my hand [at] night was extended and was not growing numb.” The verb נָגַר (nagar), which can mean “flow” in certain contexts, here has the nuance “be extended.” The imperfect form (תָפוּג, tafug, “to be numb”) is used here to describe continuous action in the past.

[77:2]  ¹⁴ tn Or “my soul.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[116:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “surrounded me.”

[116:3]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew noun מצר (“straits; distress”) occurs only here, Ps 118:5 and Lam 1:3. If retained, it refers to Sheol as a place where one is confined or severely restricted (cf. BDB 865 s.v. מֵצַר, “the straits of Sheol”; NIV “the anguish of the grave”; NRSV “the pangs of Sheol”). However, HALOT 624 s.v. מֵצַר suggests an emendation to מְצָדֵי (mÿtsadey, “snares of”), a rare noun attested in Job 19:6 and Eccl 7:26. This proposal, which is reflected in the translation, produces better parallelism with “ropes” in the preceding line.

[116:3]  ¹⁷ tn The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls the crisis from which the Lord delivered him.

[120:1]  ¹⁸ sn Psalm 120. The genre and structure of this psalm are uncertain. It begins like a thanksgiving psalm, with a brief notice that God has heard the psalmist’s prayer for help and has intervened. But v. 2 is a petition for help, followed by a taunt directed toward enemies (vv. 3-4) and a lament (vv. 5-7). Perhaps vv. 2-7 recall the psalmist’s prayer when he cried out to the Lord.

[120:1]  ¹⁹ sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[130:1]  ²⁰ sn Psalm 130. The psalmist, confident of the Lord’s forgiveness, cries out to the Lord for help in the midst of his suffering and urges Israel to do the same.

[130:1]  ²¹ sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

[130:1]  ²² tn Heb “depths,” that is, deep waters (see Ps 69:2, 14; Isa 51:10), a metaphor for the life-threatening danger faced by the psalmist.

[130:2]  ²³ tn Heb “my voice.”

[130:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “may your ears be attentive to the voice of.”

[32:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “said.”

[32:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the one who said.”

[32:9]  ²⁷ tn Heb “I will cause good” or “I will treat well [or “favorably”].” The idea includes more than prosperity, though that is its essential meaning. Here the form is subordinated to the preceding imperative and indicates purpose or result. Jacob is reminding God of his promise in the hope that God will honor his word.

[32:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the loving deeds and faithfulness” (see 24:27, 49).

[32:10]  ²⁹ tn Heb “you have done with.”

[32:10]  ³⁰ tn Heb “for with my staff.” The Hebrew word מַקֵל (maqel), traditionally translated “staff,” has been rendered as “walking stick” because a “staff” in contemporary English refers typically to the support personnel in an organization.

[32:10]  ³¹ tn Heb “this Jordan.”

[32:11]  ³² tn The imperative has the force of a prayer here, not a command.

[32:11]  ³³ tn The “hand” here is a metonymy for “power.”

[32:11]  ³⁴ tn Heb “from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau.”

[32:11]  ³⁵ tn Heb “for I am afraid of him, lest he come.”

[32:11]  ³⁶ sn Heb “me, [the] mother upon [the] sons.” The first person pronoun “me” probably means here “me and mine,” as the following clause suggests.

[32:1]  ³⁷ sn The phrase angels of God occurs only here and in Gen 28:12 in the OT. Jacob saw a vision of angels just before he left the promised land. Now he encounters angels as he prepares to return to it. The text does not give the details of the encounter, but Jacob’s response suggests it was amicable. This location was a spot where heaven made contact with earth, and where God made his presence known to the patriarch. See C. Houtman, “Jacob at Mahanaim: Some Remarks on Genesis XXXII 2-3,” VT 28 (1978): 37-44.

[30:6]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and also he has heard my voice.” The expression means that God responded positively to Rachel’s cry and granted her request.

[30:6]  ³⁹ tn Or “therefore.”

[30:6]  ⁴⁰ sn The name Dan means “he vindicated” or “he judged.” The name plays on the verb used in the statement which appears earlier in the verse. The verb translated “vindicated” is from דִּין (din, “to judge, to vindicate”), the same verbal root from which the name is derived. Rachel sensed that God was righting the wrong.

[30:7]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “and she became pregnant again and Bilhah, the servant of Rachel, bore a second son for Jacob.”

[30:8]  ⁴² tn Heb “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister, also I have prevailed.” The phrase “mighty struggle” reads literally “struggles of God.” The plural participle “struggles” reflects the ongoing nature of the struggle, while the divine name is used here idiomatically to emphasize the intensity of the struggle. See J. Skinner, Genesis (ICC), 387.

[30:8]  ⁴³ sn The name Naphtali (נַפְתָּלִי, naftali) must mean something like “my struggle” in view of the statement Rachel made in the preceding clause. The name plays on this earlier statement, “[with] a mighty struggle I have struggled with my sister.”

[14:31]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Peter) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:31]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “said emphatically.”

[14:32]  ⁴⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[14:32]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:33]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “and James,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[14:36]  ⁴⁹ tn The word means “Father” in Aramaic.

[14:36]  ⁵⁰ sn This cup alludes to the wrath of God that Jesus would experience (in the form of suffering and death) for us. See Ps 11:6; 75:8-9; Isa 51:17, 19, 22 for this figure.