Psalms 38:9

38:9 O Lord, you understand my heart’s desire; ¹ 

my groaning is not hidden from you.

Psalms 69:3

69:3 I am exhausted from shouting for help;

my throat is sore; ² 

my eyes grow tired of looking for my God. ³ 

Psalms 77:2-9

77:2 In my time of trouble I sought ⁴  the Lord.

I kept my hand raised in prayer throughout the night. ⁵ 

I ⁶  refused to be comforted.

77:3 I said, “I will remember God while I groan;

I will think about him while my strength leaves me.” ⁷  (Selah)

77:4 You held my eyelids open; ⁸ 

I was troubled and could not speak. ⁹ 

77:5 I thought about the days of old,

about ancient times. ¹⁰ 

77:6 I said, “During the night I will remember the song I once sang;

I will think very carefully.”

I tried to make sense of what was happening. ¹¹ 

77:7 I asked, ¹²  “Will the Lord reject me forever?

Will he never again show me his favor?

77:8 Has his loyal love disappeared forever?

Has his promise ¹³  failed forever?

77:9 Has God forgotten to be merciful?

Has his anger stifled his compassion?”

Psalms 88:9

88:9 My eyes grow weak because of oppression.

I call out to you, O Lord, all day long;

I spread out my hands in prayer to you. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 102:3-5

102:3 For my days go up in smoke, ¹⁵ 

and my bones are charred like a fireplace. ¹⁶ 

102:4 My heart is parched ¹⁷  and withered like grass,

for I am unable ¹⁸  to eat food. ¹⁹ 

102:5 Because of the anxiety that makes me groan,

my bones protrude from my skin. ²⁰ 

Psalms 143:4-7

143:4 My strength leaves me; ²¹ 

I am absolutely shocked. ²² 

143:5 I recall the old days; ²³ 

I meditate on all you have done;

I reflect on your accomplishments. ²⁴ 

143:6 I spread my hands out to you in prayer; ²⁵ 

my soul thirsts for you in a parched ²⁶  land. ²⁷ 

143:7 Answer me quickly, Lord!

My strength is fading. ²⁸ 

Do not reject me, ²⁹ 

or I will join ³⁰  those descending into the grave. ³¹ 

Job 7:3

7:3 thus ³²  I have been made to inherit ³³ 

months of futility, ³⁴ 

and nights of sorrow ³⁵ 

have been appointed ³⁶  to me.

Job 10:1

An Appeal for Revelation

10:1 “I ³⁷  am weary ³⁸  of my life;

I will complain without restraint; ³⁹ 

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

Job 23:2

23:2 “Even today my complaint is still bitter; ⁴⁰ 

his ⁴¹  hand is heavy despite ⁴²  my groaning.

[38:9]  ¹ tn Heb “O Lord, before you [is] all my desire.”

[69:3]  ² tn Or perhaps “raw”; Heb “burned; enflamed.”

[69:3]  ³ tn Heb “my eyes fail from waiting for my God.” The psalmist has intently kept his eyes open, looking for God to intervene, but now his eyes are watery and bloodshot, impairing his vision.

[77:2]  ⁴ tn Here the psalmist refers back to the very recent past, when he began to pray for divine help.

[77:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “my hand [at] night was extended and was not growing numb.” The verb נָגַר (nagar), which can mean “flow” in certain contexts, here has the nuance “be extended.” The imperfect form (תָפוּג, tafug, “to be numb”) is used here to describe continuous action in the past.

[77:2]  ⁶ tn Or “my soul.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[77:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “I will remember God and I will groan, I will reflect and my spirit will grow faint.” The first three verbs are cohortatives, the last a perfect with vav (ו) consecutive. The psalmist’s statement in v. 4 could be understood as concurrent with v. 1, or, more likely, as a quotation of what he had said earlier as he prayed to God (see v. 2). The words “I said” are supplied in the translation at the beginning of the verse to reflect this interpretation (see v. 10).

[77:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “you held fast the guards of my eyes.” The “guards of the eyes” apparently refers to his eyelids. The psalmist seems to be saying that God would not bring him relief, which would have allowed him to shut his eyes and get some sleep (see v. 2).

[77:4]  ⁹ tn The imperfect is used in the second clause to emphasize that this was an ongoing condition in the past.

[77:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the years of antiquity.”

[77:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will remember my song in the night, with my heart I will reflect. And my spirit searched.” As in v. 4, the words of v. 6a are understood as what the psalmist said earlier. Consequently the words “I said” are supplied in the translation for clarification (see v. 10). The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive at the beginning of the final line is taken as sequential to the perfect “I thought” in v. 6.

[77:7]  ¹² tn As in vv. 4 and 6a, the words of vv. 7-9 are understood as a quotation of what the psalmist said earlier. Therefore the words “I asked” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[77:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “word,” which may refer here to God’s word of promise (note the reference to “loyal love” in the preceding line).

[88:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I spread out my hands to you.” Spreading out the hands toward God was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). The words “in prayer” have been supplied in the translation to clarify this.

[102:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for my days come to an end in smoke.”

[102:3]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew noun מוֹ־קֵד (mo-qed, “fireplace”) occurs only here, in Isa 33:14 (where it refers to the fire itself), and perhaps in Lev 6:2.

[102:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “struck, attacked.”

[102:4]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I forget.”

[102:4]  ¹⁹ sn I am unable to eat food. During his time of mourning, the psalmist refrained from eating. In the following verse he describes metaphorically the physical effects of fasting.

[102:5]  ²⁰ tn Heb “from the sound of my groaning my bone[s] stick to my flesh.” The preposition at the beginning of the verse is causal; the phrase “sound of my groaning” is metonymic for the anxiety that causes the groaning. The point seems to be this: Anxiety (which causes the psalmist to groan) keeps him from eating (v. 4). This physical deprivation in turn makes him emaciated – he is turned to “skin and bones,” so to speak.

[143:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “my spirit grows faint.”

[143:4]  ²² tn Heb “in my midst my heart is shocked.” For a similar use of the Hitpolel of שָׁמֵם (shamem), see Isa 59:16; 63:5.

[143:5]  ²³ tn Or “ancient times”; Heb “days from before.”

[143:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the work of your hands.”

[143:6]  ²⁵ tn The words “in prayer” are supplied in the translation to clarify that the psalmist is referring to a posture of prayer.

[143:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “faint” or “weary.” See Ps 63:1.

[143:6]  ²⁷ tc Heb “my soul like a faint land for you.” A verb (perhaps “thirsts”) is implied (see Ps 63:1). The translation assumes an emendation of the preposition -כְּ (kÿ, “like”) to -בְּ (bÿ, “in,” see Ps 63:1; cf. NEB “athirst for thee in a thirsty land”). If the MT is retained, one might translate, “my soul thirsts for you, as a parched land does for water/rain” (cf. NIV, NRSV).

[143:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “my spirit is failing.”

[143:7]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ tn Heb “I will be equal with.”

[143:7]  ³¹ 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.

[7:3]  ³² tn “Thus” indicates a summary of vv. 1 and 2: like the soldier, the mercenary, and the slave, Job has labored through life and looks forward to death.

[7:3]  ³³ tn The form is the Hophal perfect of נָחַל (nakhal): “I have been made to inherit,” or more simply, “I have inherited.” The form occurs only here. The LXX must have confused the letters or sounds, a ו (vav) for the ן (nun), for it reads “I have endured.” As a passive the form technically has two accusatives (see GKC 388 §121.c). Job’s point is that his sufferings have been laid on him by another, and so he has inherited them.

[7:3]  ³⁴ tn The word is שָׁוְא (shav’, “vanity, deception, nothingness, futility”). His whole life – marked here in months to show its brevity – has been futile. E. Dhorme (Job, 98) suggests the meaning “disillusionment,” explaining that it marks the deceptive nature of mortal life. The word describes life as hollow, insubstantial.

[7:3]  ³⁵ tn “Sorrow” is עָמָל (’amal), used in 3:10. It denotes anxious toil, labor, troublesome effort. It may be that the verse expresses the idea that the nights are when the pains of his disease are felt the most. The months are completely wasted; the nights are agonizing.

[7:3]  ³⁶ tn The verb is literally “they have appointed”; the form with no expressed subject is to be interpreted as a passive (GKC 460 §144.g). It is therefore not necessary to repoint the verb to make it passive. The word means “to number; to count,” and so “to determine; to allocate.”

[10:1]  ³⁷ tn The Hebrew has נַפְשִׁי (nafshi), usually rendered “my soul.”

[10:1]  ³⁸ tn The verb is pointed like a Qal form but is originally a Niphal from קוּט (qut). Some wish to connect the word to Akkadian cognates for a meaning “I am in anguish”; but the meaning “I am weary” fits the passage well.

[10:1]  ³⁹ tn The verb עָזַב (’azav) means “to abandon.” It may have an extended meaning of “to let go” or “to let slip.” But the expression “abandon to myself” means to abandon all restraint and give free course to the complaint.

[23:2]  ⁴⁰ tc The MT reads here מְרִי (mÿri, “rebellious”). The word is related to the verb מָרָה (marah, “to revolt”). Many commentators follow the Vulgate, Targum Job, and the Syriac to read מַר (mar, “bitter”). The LXX offers no help here.

[23:2]  ⁴¹ tc The MT (followed by the Vulgate and Targum) has “my hand is heavy on my groaning.” This would mean “my stroke is heavier than my groaning” (an improbable view from Targum Job). A better suggestion is that the meaning would be that Job tries to suppress his groans but the hand with which he suppresses them is too heavy (H. H. Rowley, Job [NCBC], 159). Budde, E. Dhorme, J. E. Hartley, and F. I. Andersen all maintain the MT as the more difficult reading. F. I. Andersen (Job [TOTC], 208) indicates that the ִי(i) suffix could be an example of an unusual third masculine singular. Both the LXX and the Syriac versions have “his hand,” and many modern commentators follow this, along with the present translation. In this case the referent of “his” would be God, whose hand is heavy upon Job in spite of Job’s groaning.

[23:2]  ⁴² tn The preposition can take this meaning; it could be also translated simply “upon.” R. Gordis (Job, 260) reads the preposition “more than,” saying that Job had been defiant (he takes that view) but God’s hand had been far worse.