Psalms 38:1-2

Psalm 38 ¹ 

A psalm of David, written to get God’s attention. ² 

38:1 O Lord, do not continue to rebuke me in your anger!

Do not continue to punish me in your raging fury! ³ 

38:2 For your arrows pierce ⁴  me,

and your hand presses me down. ⁵ 

Psalms 89:46

89:46 How long, O Lord, will this last?

Will you remain hidden forever? ⁶ 

Will your anger continue to burn like fire?

Psalms 90:7

90:7 Yes, ⁷  we are consumed by your anger;

we are terrified by your wrath.

Psalms 90:11

90:11 Who can really fathom the intensity of your anger? ⁸ 

Your raging fury causes people to fear you. ⁹ 

Psalms 102:10

102:10 because of your anger and raging fury.

Indeed, ¹⁰  you pick me up and throw me away.

Isaiah 53:4-6

53:4 But he lifted up our illnesses,

he carried our pain; ¹¹ 

even though we thought he was being punished,

attacked by God, and afflicted for something he had done. ¹² 

53:5 He was wounded because of ¹³  our rebellious deeds,

crushed because of our sins;

he endured punishment that made us well; ¹⁴ 

because of his wounds we have been healed. ¹⁵ 

53:6 All of us had wandered off like sheep;

each of us had strayed off on his own path,

but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him. ¹⁶ 

Romans 8:32

8:32 Indeed, he who ¹⁷  did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?

Galatians 3:13

3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming ¹⁸  a curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”) ¹⁹ 

Revelation 6:17

6:17 because the great day of their ²⁰  wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?” ²¹ 

[38:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 38. The author asks the Lord to deliver him from his enemies. He confesses his sin and recognizes that the crisis he faces is the result of divine discipline. Yet he begs the Lord not to reject him.

[38:1]  ² tn The Hebrew text reads simply, “to cause to remember.” The same form, the Hiphil infinitive of זָכַר (zakhar, “remember”), also appears in the heading of Ps 70. Some understand this in the sense of “for the memorial offering,” but it may carry the idea of bringing one’s plight to God’s attention (see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 303).

[38:1]  ³ tn The words “continue to” are supplied in the translation of both lines. The following verses make it clear that the psalmist is already experiencing divine rebuke/punishment. He asks that it might cease.

[38:2]  ⁴ tn The verb Hebrew נָחַת (nakhat) apparently here means “penetrate, pierce” (note the use of the Qal in Prov 17:10). The psalmist pictures the Lord as a warrior who shoots arrows at him (see Ps 7:12-13).

[38:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “and your hand [?] upon me.” The meaning of the verb נָחַת (nakhat) is unclear in this context. It is preferable to emend the form to וַתָּנַח (vattanakh) from the verb נוּחַ (nuakh, “rest”). In this case the text would read literally, “and your hand rests upon me” (see Isa 25:10, though the phrase is used in a positive sense there, unlike Ps 38:2).

[89:46]  ⁶ tn Heb “How long, O Lord, will hide yourself forever?”

[90:7]  ⁷ tn Or “for.”

[90:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “Who knows the strength of your anger?”

[90:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “and like your fear [is] your raging fury.” Perhaps one should emend וּכְיִרְאָתְךְ (ukhyir’otekh, “and like your fear”) to יִרְאָתְךְ (yir’otkh, “your fear”), understanding a virtual dittography (אַפֶּךָ וּכְיִרְאָתְךְ, ’apekha ukhyir’otekh) to have occurred. In this case the psalmist asserts “your fear [is] your raging fury,” that is, your raging fury is what causes others to fear you. The suffix on “fear” is understood as objective.

[102:10]  ¹⁰ tn Or “for.”

[53:4]  ¹¹ sn Illness and pain stand by metonymy (or perhaps as metaphors) for sin and its effects, as vv. 11-12 make clear.

[53:4]  ¹² tn The words “for something he had done” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The group now realizes he suffered because of his identification with them, not simply because he was a special target of divine anger.

[53:5]  ¹³ tn The preposition מִן (min) has a causal sense (translated “because of”) here and in the following clause.

[53:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “the punishment of our peace [was] on him.” שָׁלוֹם (shalom, “peace”) is here a genitive of result, i.e., “punishment that resulted in our peace.”

[53:5]  ¹⁵ sn Continuing to utilize the imagery of physical illness, the group acknowledges that the servant’s willingness to carry their illnesses (v. 4) resulted in their being healed. Healing is a metaphor for forgiveness here.

[53:6]  ¹⁶ tn Elsewhere the Hiphil of פָגַע (paga’) means “to intercede verbally” (Jer 15:11; 36:25) or “to intervene militarily” (Isa 59:16), but neither nuance fits here. Apparently here the Hiphil is the causative of the normal Qal meaning, “encounter, meet, touch.” The Qal sometimes refers to a hostile encounter or attack; when used in this way the object is normally introduced by the preposition -בְּ (bet, see Josh 2:16; Judg 8:21; 15:12, etc.). Here the causative Hiphil has a double object – the Lord makes “sin” attack “him” (note that the object attacked is introduced by the preposition -בְּ. In their sin the group was like sheep who had wandered from God’s path. They were vulnerable to attack; the guilt of their sin was ready to attack and destroy them. But then the servant stepped in and took the full force of the attack.

[8:32]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “[he] who.” The relative clause continues the question of v. 31 in a way that is awkward in English. The force of v. 32 is thus: “who indeed did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – How will he not also with him give us all things?”

[3:13]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “having become”; the participle γενόμενος (genomenos) has been taken instrumentally.

[3:13]  ¹⁹ sn A quotation from Deut 21:23. By figurative extension the Greek word translated tree (ζύλον, zulon) can also be used to refer to a cross (L&N 6.28), the Roman instrument of execution.

[6:17]  ²⁰ tc Most mss (A Ï bo) change the pronoun “their” to “his” (αὐτοῦ, autou) in order to bring the text in line with the mention of the one seated on the throne in the immediately preceding verse, and to remove the ambiguity about whose wrath is in view here. The reading αὐτῶν (autwn, “their”) is well supported by א C 1611 1854 2053 2329 2344 pc latt sy. On both internal and external grounds, it should be regarded as original.

[6:17]  ²¹ tn The translation “to withstand (it)” for ἵστημι (Jisthmi) is based on the imagery of holding one’s ground in a military campaign or an attack (BDAG 482 s.v. B.4).