Psalms 25:16-17

25:16 Turn toward me and have mercy on me,

for I am alone ¹  and oppressed!

25:17 Deliver me from my distress; ² 

rescue me from my suffering! ³ 

Psalms 25:1

Psalm 25 ⁴ 

By David.

25:1 O Lord, I come before you in prayer. ⁵ 

Psalms 6:5

6:5 For no one remembers you in the realm of death, ⁶ 

In Sheol who gives you thanks? ⁷ 

Job 9:34

9:34 who ⁸  would take his ⁹  rod ¹⁰  away from me

so that his terror ¹¹  would not make me afraid.

Job 13:21

13:21 Remove ¹²  your hand ¹³  far from me

and stop making me afraid with your terror. ¹⁴ 

[25:16]  ¹ tn That is, helpless and vulnerable.

[25:17]  ² tc Heb “the distresses of my heart, they make wide.” The text makes little if any sense as it stands, unless this is an otherwise unattested intransitive use of the Hiphil of רָחַב (rakhav, “be wide”). It is preferable to emend the form הִרְחִיבוּ (hirkhivu; Hiphil perfect third plural “they make wide”) to הַרְחֵיב (harkhev; Hiphil imperative masculine singular “make wide”). (The final vav [ו] can be joined to the following word and taken as a conjunction.) In this case one can translate, “[in/from] the distresses of my heart, make wide [a place for me],” that is, “deliver me from the distress I am experiencing.” For the expression “make wide [a place for me],” see Ps 4:1.

[25:17]  ³ tn Heb “from my distresses lead me out.”

[25:1]  ⁴ sn Psalm 25. The psalmist asks for divine protection, guidance and forgiveness as he affirms his loyalty to and trust in the Lord. This psalm is an acrostic; every verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, except for v. 18, which, like v. 19, begins with ר (resh) instead of the expected ק (qof). The final verse, which begins with פ (pe), stands outside the acrostic scheme.

[25:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “to you, O Lord, my life I lift up.” To “lift up” one’s “life” to the Lord means to express one’s trust in him through prayer. See Pss 86:4; 143:8.

[6:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “for there is not in death your remembrance.” The Hebrew noun זֵכֶר (zekher, “remembrance”) here refers to the name of the Lord as invoked in liturgy and praise. Cf. Pss 30:4; 97:12. “Death” here refers to the realm of death where the dead reside. See the reference to Sheol in the next line.

[6:5]  ⁷ tn The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “no one.”

[9:34]  ⁸ tn The verse probably continues the description from the last verse, and so a relative pronoun may be supplied here as well.

[9:34]  ⁹ tn According to some, the reference of this suffix would be to God. The arbiter would remove the rod of God from Job. But others take it as a separate sentence with God removing his rod.

[9:34]  ¹⁰ sn The “rod” is a symbol of the power of God to decree whatever judgments and afflictions fall upon people.

[9:34]  ¹¹ tn “His terror” is metonymical; it refers to the awesome majesty of God that overwhelms Job and causes him to be afraid.

[13:21]  ¹² tn The imperative הַרְחַק (harkhaq, “remove”; GKC 98 §29.q), from רָחַק (rakhaq, “far, be far”) means “take away [far away]; to remove.”

[13:21]  ¹³ sn This is a common, but bold, anthropomorphism. The fact that the word used is כַּף (kaf, properly “palm”) rather than יָד (yad, “hand,” with the sense of power) may stress Job’s feeling of being trapped or confined (see also Ps 139:5, 7).

[13:21]  ¹⁴ tn See Job 9:34.