Psalms 42:9-11

42:9 I will pray ¹  to God, my high ridge: ² 

“Why do you ignore ³  me?

Why must I walk around mourning ⁴ 

because my enemies oppress me?”

42:10 My enemies’ taunts cut into me to the bone, ⁵ 

as they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” ⁶ 

42:11 Why are you depressed, ⁷  O my soul? ⁸ 

Why are you upset? ⁹ 

Wait for God!

For I will again give thanks

to my God for his saving intervention. ¹⁰ 

[42:9]  ¹ tn The cohortative form indicates the psalmist’s resolve.

[42:9]  ² tn This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28; Pss 18:2; 31:3.

[42:9]  ³ tn Or “forget.”

[42:9]  ⁴ sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar idea.

[42:10]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ sn “Where is your God?” The enemies ask this same question in v. 3.

[42:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”

[42:11]  ⁸ sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.

[42:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “and why are you in turmoil upon me?”

[42:11]  ¹⁰ 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.