Psalms 6:4

6:4 Relent, Lord, rescue me! ¹ 

Deliver me because of your faithfulness! ² 

Psalms 22:20

22:20 Deliver me ³  from the sword!

Save ⁴  my life ⁵  from the claws ⁶  of the wild dogs!

Psalms 25:17

25:17 Deliver me from my distress; ⁷ 

rescue me from my suffering! ⁸ 

Psalms 40:12-13

40:12 For innumerable dangers ⁹  surround me.

My sins overtake me

so I am unable to see;

they outnumber the hairs of my head

so my strength fails me. ¹⁰ 

40:13 Please be willing, O Lord, to rescue me!

O Lord, hurry and help me! ¹¹ 

Psalms 142:4-6

142:4 Look to the right and see!

No one cares about me. ¹² 

I have nowhere to run; ¹³ 

no one is concerned about my life. ¹⁴ 

142:5 I cry out to you, O Lord;

I say, “You are my shelter,

my security ¹⁵  in the land of the living.”

142:6 Listen to my cry for help,

for I am in serious trouble! ¹⁶ 

Rescue me from those who chase me,

for they are stronger than I am.

Psalms 143:6-9

143:6 I spread my hands out to you in prayer; ¹⁷ 

my soul thirsts for you in a parched ¹⁸  land. ¹⁹ 

143:7 Answer me quickly, Lord!

My strength is fading. ²⁰ 

Do not reject me, ²¹ 

or I will join ²²  those descending into the grave. ²³ 

143:8 May I hear about your loyal love in the morning, ²⁴ 

for I trust in you.

Show me the way I should go, ²⁵ 

because I long for you. ²⁶ 

143:9 Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord!

I run to you for protection. ²⁷ 

Luke 18:13

18:13 The tax collector, however, stood ²⁸  far off and would not even look up ²⁹  to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful ³⁰  to me, sinner that I am!’ ³¹ 

Luke 23:42-43

23:42 Then ³²  he said, “Jesus, remember me ³³  when you come in ³⁴  your kingdom.” 23:43 And Jesus ³⁵  said to him, “I tell you the truth, ³⁶  today ³⁷  you will be with me in paradise.” ³⁸ 

[6:4]  ¹ tn Heb “my being,” or “my life.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.

[6:4]  ² sn Deliver me because of your faithfulness. Though the psalmist is experiencing divine discipline, he realizes that God has made a commitment to him in the past, so he appeals to God’s faithfulness in his request for help.

[22:20]  ³ tn Or “my life.”

[22:20]  ⁴ tn The verb “save” is supplied in the translation; it is understood by ellipsis (see “deliver” in the preceding line).

[22:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “my only one.” The psalmist may mean that his life is precious, or that he feels isolated and alone.

[22:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “from the hand.” Here “hand” is understood by metonymy as a reference to the “paw” and thus the “claws” of the wild dogs.

[25:17]  ⁷ tc Heb “the distresses of my heart, they make wide.” The text makes little if any sense as it stands, unless this is an otherwise unattested intransitive use of the Hiphil of רָחַב (rakhav, “be wide”). It is preferable to emend the form הִרְחִיבוּ (hirkhivu; Hiphil perfect third plural “they make wide”) to הַרְחֵיב (harkhev; Hiphil imperative masculine singular “make wide”). (The final vav [ו] can be joined to the following word and taken as a conjunction.) In this case one can translate, “[in/from] the distresses of my heart, make wide [a place for me],” that is, “deliver me from the distress I am experiencing.” For the expression “make wide [a place for me],” see Ps 4:1.

[25:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “from my distresses lead me out.”

[40:12]  ⁹ tn Or “sinful deeds.” The Hebrew term used here can have a nonmoral nuance (“dangers”) or a moral one (“sinful deeds”) depending on the context. The next line (see “my sins”) seems to favor the moral sense, but the psalmist also speaks of enemies shortly after this (v. 14).

[40:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and my heart abandons me.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of emotional strength and courage. For a similar idea see Ps 38:10.

[40:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “hurry to my help.” See Pss 22:19; 38:22.

[142:4]  ¹² tn Heb “there is no one who recognizes me.”

[142:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “ a place of refuge perishes from me.”

[142:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “there is no one who seeks for the sake of my life.”

[142:5]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my portion.” The psalmist compares the Lord to landed property, which was foundational to economic stability in ancient Israel.

[142:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for I am very low.”

[143:6]  ¹⁷ tn The words “in prayer” are supplied in the translation to clarify that the psalmist is referring to a posture of prayer.

[143:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “faint” or “weary.” See Ps 63:1.

[143:6]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn Heb “my spirit is failing.”

[143:7]  ²¹ 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]  ²² tn Heb “I will be equal with.”

[143:7]  ²³ 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.

[143:8]  ²⁴ tn Heb “cause me to hear in the morning your loyal love.” Here “loyal love” probably stands metonymically for an oracle of assurance promising God’s intervention as an expression of his loyal love.

[143:8]  ²⁵ sn The way probably refers here to God’s moral and ethical standards and requirements (see v. 10).

[143:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “for to you I lift up my life.” The Hebrew expression נָאָשׂ נֶפֶשׁ (na’as nefesh, “to lift up [one’s] life”) means “to desire; to long for” (see Deut 24:15; Prov 19:18; Jer 22:27; 44:14; Hos 4:8, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 16).

[143:9]  ²⁷ tn Heb “to you I cover,” which makes no sense. The translation assumes an emendation to נַסְתִּי (nastiy, “I flee,” a Qal perfect, first singular form from נוּס, nos). Confusion of kaf (כ) and nun (נ) is attested elsewhere (see P. K. McCarter, Textual Criticism [GBS], 48). The collocation of נוּס (“flee”) with אֶל (’el, “to”) is well-attested.

[18:13]  ²⁸ tn Grk “standing”; the Greek participle has been translated as a finite verb.

[18:13]  ²⁹ tn Grk “even lift up his eyes” (an idiom).

[18:13]  ³⁰ tn The prayer is a humble call for forgiveness. The term for mercy (ἱλάσκομαι, Jilaskomai) is associated with the concept of a request for atonement (BDAG 473-74 s.v. 1; Ps 51:1, 3; 25:11; 34:6, 18).

[18:13]  ³¹ tn Grk “the sinner.” The tax collector views himself not just as any sinner but as the worst of all sinners. See ExSyn 222-23.

[23:42]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[23:42]  ³³ sn Jesus, remember me is a statement of faith from the cross, as Jesus saves another even while he himself is dying. This man’s faith had shown itself when he rebuked the other thief. He hoped to be with Jesus sometime in the future in the kingdom.

[23:42]  ³⁴ tc ‡ The alternate readings of some mss make the reference to Jesus’ coming clearer. “Into your kingdom” – with εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν (ei" thn basileian), read by Ì⁷⁵ B L – is a reference to his entering into God’s presence at the right hand. “In your kingdom” – with ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ (en th basileia), read by א A C*^,2 W Θ Ψ 070 Ë^1,13 33 Ï lat sy – looks at his return. It could be argued that the reading with εἰς is more in keeping with Luke’s theology elsewhere, but the contrast with Jesus’ reply, “Today,” slightly favors the reading “in your kingdom.” Codex Bezae (D), in place of this short interchange between the criminal and Jesus, reads “Then he turned to the Lord and said to him, ‘Remember me in the day of your coming.’ Then the Lord said in reply to [him], ‘Take courage; today you will be with me in paradise.’” This reading emphasizes the future aspect of the coming of Christ; it has virtually no support in any other mss.

[23:43]  ³⁵ tn Grk “he.”

[23:43]  ³⁶ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[23:43]  ³⁷ sn Jesus gives more than the criminal asked for, because the blessing will come today, not in the future. He will be among the righteous. See the note on today in 2:11.

[23:43]  ³⁸ sn In the NT, paradise is mentioned three times. Here it refers to the abode of the righteous dead. In Rev 2:7 it refers to the restoration of Edenic paradise predicted in Isa 51:3 and Ezek 36:35. In 2 Cor 12:4 it probably refers to the “third heaven” (2 Cor 12:2) as the place where God dwells.