Psalms 35:23

35:23 Rouse yourself, wake up ¹  and vindicate me! ² 

My God and Lord, defend my just cause! ³ 

Psalms 44:23-26

44:23 Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord?

Wake up! ⁴  Do not reject us forever!

44:24 Why do you look the other way, ⁵ 

and ignore ⁶  the way we are oppressed and mistreated? ⁷ 

44:25 For we lie in the dirt,

with our bellies pressed to the ground. ⁸ 

44:26 Rise up and help us!

Rescue us ⁹  because of your loyal love!

Psalms 78:38

78:38 Yet he is compassionate.

He forgives sin and does not destroy.

He often holds back his anger,

and does not stir up his fury. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 42:13-14

42:13 The Lord emerges like a hero,

like a warrior he inspires himself for battle; ¹¹ 

he shouts, yes, he yells,

he shows his enemies his power. ¹² 

42:14 “I have been inactive ¹³  for a long time;

I kept quiet and held back.

Like a woman in labor I groan;

I pant and gasp. ¹⁴ 

[35:23]  ¹ sn Though he is confident that the Lord is aware of his situation (see v. 22a), the psalmist compares the Lord’s inactivity to sleep and urges him to wake up.

[35:23]  ² tn Heb “for my justice.”

[35:23]  ³ tn Heb “for my cause.”

[44:23]  ⁴ sn Wake up! See Ps 35:23.

[44:24]  ⁵ tn Heb “Why do you hide your face?” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).

[44:24]  ⁶ tn Or “forget.”

[44:24]  ⁷ tn Heb “our oppression and our affliction.”

[44:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “for our being/life sinks down to the dirt, our belly clings to the earth.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being, life”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.

[44:26]  ⁹ tn Or “redeem us.” See Pss 25:22; 26:11; 69:18; 119:134.

[78:38]  ¹⁰ tn One could translate v. 38 in the past tense (“he was compassionate…forgave sin and did not destroy…held back his anger, and did not stir up his fury”), but the imperfect verbal forms are probably best understood as generalizing. Verse 38 steps back briefly from the narrational summary of Israel’s history and lays the theological basis for v. 39, which focuses on God’s mercy toward sinful Israel.

[42:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “like a man of war he stirs up zeal” (NIV similar).

[42:13]  ¹² tn Or perhaps, “he triumphs over his enemies” (cf. NIV); NLT “will crush all his enemies.”

[42:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “silent” (so NASB, NIV, TEV, NLT); CEV “have held my temper.”

[42:14]  ¹⁴ sn The imagery depicts the Lord as a warrior who is eager to fight and can no longer hold himself back from the attack.