Psalms 22:29

22:29 All of the thriving people ¹  of the earth will join the celebration and worship; ² 

all those who are descending into the grave ³  will bow before him,

including those who cannot preserve their lives. ⁴ 

Psalms 30:9

30:9 “What ⁵  profit is there in taking my life, ⁶ 

in my descending into the Pit? ⁷ 

Can the dust of the grave ⁸  praise you?

Can it declare your loyalty? ⁹ 

Psalms 122:4

122:4 The tribes go up ¹⁰  there, ¹¹ 

the tribes of the Lord,

where it is required that Israel

give thanks to the name of the Lord. ¹² 

Psalms 143:7

143:7 Answer me quickly, Lord!

My strength is fading. ¹³ 

Do not reject me, ¹⁴ 

or I will join ¹⁵  those descending into the grave. ¹⁶ 

[22:29]  ¹ tn Heb “fat [ones].” This apparently refers to those who are healthy and robust, i.e., thriving. In light of the parallelism, some prefer to emend the form to יְשֵׁנֵי (yÿsheney, “those who sleep [in the earth]”; cf. NAB, NRSV), but דִּשְׁנֵי (dishney, “fat [ones]”) seems to form a merism with “all who descend into the grave” in the following line. The psalmist envisions all people, whether healthy or dying, joining in worship of the Lord.

[22:29]  ² tn Heb “eat and worship.” The verb forms (a perfect followed by a prefixed form with vav [ו] consecutive) are normally used in narrative to relate completed actions. Here the psalmist uses the forms rhetorically as he envisions a time when the Lord will receive universal worship. The mood is one of wishful thinking and anticipation; this is not prophecy in the strict sense.

[22:29]  ³ tn Heb “all of the ones going down [into] the dust.” This group stands in contrast to those mentioned in the previous line. Together the two form a merism encompassing all human beings – the healthy, the dying, and everyone in between.

[22:29]  ⁴ tn Heb “and his life he does not revive.”

[30:9]  ⁵ sn The following two verses (vv. 9-10) contain the prayer (or an excerpt of the prayer) that the psalmist offered to the Lord during his crisis.

[30:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “What profit [is there] in my blood?” “Blood” here represents his life.

[30:9]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term שָׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 16:10; 49:9; 55:24; 103:4).

[30:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “dust.” The words “of the grave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[30:9]  ⁹ tn The rhetorical questions anticipate the answer, “Of course not!”

[122:4]  ⁹ tn Or “went up.”

[122:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “which is where the tribes go up.”

[122:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “[it is] a statute for Israel to give thanks to the name of the Lord.”

[143:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “my spirit is failing.”

[143:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “do not hide your face from me.” The idiom “hide the face” (1) can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or (2) can carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).

[143:7]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I will be equal with.”

[143:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the pit.” The Hebrew noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit; cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead. See Ps 28:1.