Psalms 72:9

72:9 Before him the coastlands ¹  will bow down,

and his enemies will lick the dust. ² 

Psalms 103:14

103:14 For he knows what we are made of; ³ 

he realizes ⁴  we are made of clay. ⁵ 

Psalms 30:9

30:9 “What ⁶  profit is there in taking my life, ⁷ 

in my descending into the Pit? ⁸ 

Can the dust of the grave ⁹  praise you?

Can it declare your loyalty? ¹⁰ 

Psalms 22:29

22:29 All of the thriving people ¹¹  of the earth will join the celebration and worship; ¹² 

all those who are descending into the grave ¹³  will bow before him,

including those who cannot preserve their lives. ¹⁴ 

[72:9]  ¹ tn Or “islands.” The term here refers metonymically to those people who dwell in these regions.

[72:9]  ² sn As they bow down before him, it will appear that his enemies are licking the dust.

[103:14]  ³ tn Heb “our form.”

[103:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “remembers.”

[103:14]  ⁵ tn Heb “we [are] clay.”

[30:9]  ⁵ sn The following two verses (vv. 9-10) contain the prayer (or an excerpt of the prayer) that the psalmist offered to the Lord during his crisis.

[30:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “What profit [is there] in my blood?” “Blood” here represents his life.

[30:9]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term שָׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 16:10; 49:9; 55:24; 103:4).

[30:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “dust.” The words “of the grave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[30:9]  ⁹ tn The rhetorical questions anticipate the answer, “Of course not!”

[22:29]  ⁷ tn Heb “fat [ones].” This apparently refers to those who are healthy and robust, i.e., thriving. In light of the parallelism, some prefer to emend the form to יְשֵׁנֵי (yÿsheney, “those who sleep [in the earth]”; cf. NAB, NRSV), but דִּשְׁנֵי (dishney, “fat [ones]”) seems to form a merism with “all who descend into the grave” in the following line. The psalmist envisions all people, whether healthy or dying, joining in worship of the Lord.

[22:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “eat and worship.” The verb forms (a perfect followed by a prefixed form with vav [ו] consecutive) are normally used in narrative to relate completed actions. Here the psalmist uses the forms rhetorically as he envisions a time when the Lord will receive universal worship. The mood is one of wishful thinking and anticipation; this is not prophecy in the strict sense.

[22:29]  ⁹ tn Heb “all of the ones going down [into] the dust.” This group stands in contrast to those mentioned in the previous line. Together the two form a merism encompassing all human beings – the healthy, the dying, and everyone in between.

[22:29]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and his life he does not revive.”