Psalms 71:7

71:7 Many are appalled when they see me, ¹ 

but you are my secure shelter.

Psalms 31:12

31:12 I am forgotten, like a dead man no one thinks about; ² 

I am regarded as worthless, like a broken jar. ³ 

Psalms 69:8

69:8 My own brothers treat me like a stranger;

they act as if I were a foreigner. ⁴ 

Psalms 73:22

73:22 I was ignorant ⁵  and lacked insight; ⁶ 

I was as senseless as an animal before you. ⁷ 

Psalms 102:6

102:6 I am like an owl ⁸  in the wilderness;

I am like a screech owl ⁹  among the ruins. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 109:25

109:25 I am disdained by them. ¹¹ 

When they see me, they shake their heads. ¹² 

Psalms 119:83

119:83 For ¹³  I am like a wineskin ¹⁴  dried up in smoke. ¹⁵ 

I do not forget your statutes.

Psalms 30:7

30:7 O Lord, in your good favor you made me secure. ¹⁶ 

Then you rejected me ¹⁷  and I was terrified.

Psalms 37:25

37:25 I was once young, now I am old.

I have never seen a godly man abandoned,

or his children ¹⁸  forced to search for food. ¹⁹ 

Psalms 88:4

88:4 They treat me like ²⁰  those who descend into the grave. ²¹ 

I am like a helpless man, ²² 

Psalms 31:11

31:11 Because of all my enemies, people disdain me; ²³ 

my neighbors are appalled by my suffering ²⁴  –

those who know me are horrified by my condition; ²⁵ 

those who see me in the street run away from me.

[71:7]  ¹ tn Heb “like a sign [i.e., portent or bad omen] I am to many.”

[31:12]  ² tn Heb “I am forgotten, like a dead man, from [the] heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the center of one’s thoughts.

[31:12]  ³ tn Heb “I am like a broken jar.” One throws away a broken jar without a second thought because it is considered worthless and useless.

[69:8]  ³ tn Heb “and I am estranged to my brothers, and a foreigner to the sons of my mother.”

[73:22]  ⁴ tn Or “brutish, stupid.”

[73:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “and I was not knowing.”

[73:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “an animal I was with you.”

[102:6]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term קָאַת (qa’at) refers to some type of bird (see Lev 11:18; Deut 14:17) that was typically found near ruins (see Zeph 2:14). Modern translations have frequently rendered this as some type of owl (NIV, REB “desert owl”; NRSV “owl”).

[102:6]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term כוֹס (khos) refers to a bird (see Lev 11:17; Deut 14:16), probably a type of owl (cf. NIV, REB “owl”; NRSV “little owl”).

[102:6]  ⁷ sn By comparing himself to a screech owl among the ruins, the psalmist may be highlighting his loneliness (see v. 7), though he may also be comparing his cries for help to the owl’s screech.

[109:25]  ⁶ tn Heb “as for me, I am a reproach to them.”

[109:25]  ⁷ sn They shake their heads. Apparently shaking the head was a taunting gesture. See also Job 16:4; Ps 22:7; Lam 2:15.

[119:83]  ⁷ tn Or “even though.”

[119:83]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew word נֹאד (no’d, “leather container”) refers to a container made from animal skin which is used to hold wine or milk (see Josh 9:4, 13; Judg 4:19; 1 Sam 16:20).

[119:83]  ⁹ tn Heb “in the smoke.”

[30:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “in your good favor you caused to stand for my mountain strength.” Apparently this means “you established strength for my mountain” (“mountain” in this case representing his rule, which would be centered on Mt. Zion) or “you established strength as my mountain” (“mountain” in this case being a metaphor for security).

[30:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “you hid your face.” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or, as here, carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Ps 88:14).

[37:25]  ⁹ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

[37:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “or his offspring searching for food.” The expression “search for food” also appears in Lam 1:11, where Jerusalem’s refugees are forced to search for food and to trade their valuable possessions for something to eat.

[88:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I am considered with.”

[88:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the pit.” The noun בּוֹר (bor, “pit,” “cistern”) is sometimes used of the grave and/or the realm of the dead.

[88:4]  ¹² tn Heb “I am like a man [for whom] there is no help.”

[31:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “because of all my enemies I am a reproach.”

[31:11]  ¹² tc Heb “and to my neighbors, exceedingly.” If the MT is retained, then these words probably go with what precedes. However the syntactical awkwardness of the text suggests it is textually corrupt. P. C. Craigie (Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 258) suggests that the initial mem (מ) on מְאֹד (me’od, “exceedingly”) be understood as an enclitic mem (ם) which was originally suffixed to the preceding form and then later misinterpreted. The resulting form אֵד (’ed) can then be taken as a defectively written form of אֵיד (’ed, “calamity”). If one follows this emendation, then the text reads literally, “and to my neighbors [I am one who experiences] calamity.” The noun פַחַד (fakhad, “[object of] horror”) occurs in the next line; אֵיד and פַחַד appear in parallelism elsewhere (see Prov 1:26-27).

[31:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “and [an object of ] horror to those known by me.”