Psalms 3:4

3:4 To the Lord I cried out, ¹ 

and he answered me from his holy hill. ²  (Selah)

Psalms 56:8

56:8 You keep track of my misery. ³ 

Put my tears in your leather container! ⁴ 

Are they not recorded in your scroll? ⁵ 

Psalms 116:8

116:8 Yes, ⁶  Lord, ⁷  you rescued my life from death,

and kept my feet from stumbling.

Psalms 145:18

145:18 The Lord is near all who cry out to him,

all who cry out to him sincerely. ⁸ 

Isaiah 30:19

30:19 For people will live in Zion;

in Jerusalem ⁹  you will weep no more. ¹⁰ 

When he hears your cry of despair, he will indeed show you mercy;

when he hears it, he will respond to you. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 38:3

38:3 “Please, Lord. Remember how I have served you ¹²  faithfully and with wholehearted devotion, ¹³  and how I have carried out your will.” ¹⁴  Then Hezekiah wept bitterly. ¹⁵ 

Isaiah 38:5

38:5 “Go and tell Hezekiah: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor ¹⁶  David says: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will add fifteen years to your life,

Hebrews 5:7

5:7 During his earthly life ¹⁷  Christ ¹⁸  offered ¹⁹  both requests and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his devotion.

[3:4]  ¹ tn The prefixed verbal form could be an imperfect, yielding the translation “I cry out,” but the verb form in the next line (a vav [ו] consecutive with the preterite) suggests this is a brief narrative of what has already happened. Consequently the verb form in v. 4a is better understood as a preterite, “I cried out.” (For another example of the preterite of this same verb form, see Ps 30:8.) Sometime after the crisis arose, the psalmist prayed to the Lord and received an assuring answer. Now he confidently awaits the fulfillment of the divine promise.

[3:4]  ² sn His holy hill. That is, Zion (see Pss 2:6; 48:1-2). The psalmist recognizes that the Lord dwells in his sanctuary on Mount Zion.

[56:8]  ³ tn Heb “my wandering you count, you.” The Hebrew term נֹד (nod, “wandering,” derived from the verbal root נוֹד, nod, “to wander”; cf. NASB) here refers to the psalmist’s “changeable circumstances of life” and may be translated “misery.” The verb סָפַר (safar, “count”) probably carries the nuance “assess” here. Cf. NIV “my lament”; NRSV “my tossings.”

[56:8]  ⁴ tn Traditionally “your bottle.” Elsewhere the Hebrew word נֹאד (no’d, “leather container”) refers to a container made from animal skin which is used to hold wine or milk (see Josh 9:4, 13; Judg 4:19; 1 Sam 16:20). If such a container is metaphorically in view here, then the psalmist seems to be asking God to store up his tears as a reminder of his suffering.

[56:8]  ⁵ tn The word “recorded” is supplied in the translation for clarification. The rhetorical question assumes a positive response (see the first line of the verse).

[116:8]  ⁶ tn Or “for.”

[116:8]  ⁷ tn “Lord” is supplied here in the translation for clarification.

[145:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “in truth.”

[30:19]  ⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[30:19]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “For people in Zion will live, in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.” The phrase “in Jerusalem” could be taken with what precedes. Some prefer to emend יֵשֵׁב (yeshev, “will live,” a Qal imperfect) to יֹשֵׁב (yoshev, a Qal active participle) and translate “For [you] people in Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.”

[30:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he will indeed show you mercy at the sound of your crying out; when he hears, he will answer you.”

[38:3]  ¹² tn Heb “walked before you.” For a helpful discussion of the background and meaning of this Hebrew idiom, see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 254.

[38:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “and with a complete heart”; KJV, ASV “with a perfect heart.”

[38:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and that which is good in your eyes I have done.”

[38:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “wept with great weeping”; NCV “cried loudly”; TEV “began to cry bitterly.”

[38:5]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “father” (so KJV, NAB, NIV).

[5:7]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “in the days of his flesh.”

[5:7]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:7]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “who…having offered,” continuing the description of Christ from Heb 5:5-6.