Psalms 42:10-11

42:10 My enemies’ taunts cut into me to the bone, ¹ 

as they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” ² 

42:11 Why are you depressed, ³  O my soul? ⁴ 

Why are you upset? ⁵ 

Wait for God!

For I will again give thanks

to my God for his saving intervention. ⁶ 

[42:10]  ¹ tc Heb “with a shattering in my bones my enemies taunt me.” A few medieval Hebrew mss and Symmachus’ Greek version read “like” instead of “with.”

[42:10]  ² sn “Where is your God?” The enemies ask this same question in v. 3.

[42:11]  ³ tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”

[42:11]  ⁴ sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.

[42:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “and why are you in turmoil upon me?”

[42:11]  ⁶ tc Heb “for again I will give him thanks, the saving acts of my face and my God.” The last line should be emended to read יְשׁוּעֹת פְנֵי אֱלֹהָי (yÿshu’ot fÿney ’elohay, “[for] the saving acts of the face of my God”), that is, the saving acts associated with God’s presence/intervention. This refrain is almost identical to the one in v. 5. See also Ps 43:5.