Psalms 74:20

74:20 Remember your covenant promises, ¹ 

for the dark regions of the earth are full of places where violence rules. ² 

Psalms 88:18

88:18 You cause my friends and neighbors to keep their distance; ³ 

those who know me leave me alone in the darkness. ⁴ 

Psalms 143:3

143:3 Certainly ⁵  my enemies ⁶  chase me.

They smash me into the ground. ⁷ 

They force me to live ⁸  in dark regions, ⁹ 

like those who have been dead for ages.

[74:20]  ¹ tc Heb “look at the covenant.” The LXX reads “your covenant,” which seems to assume a second person pronominal suffix. The suffix may have been accidentally omitted by haplography. Note that the following word (כִּי) begins with kaf (כ).

[74:20]  ² tn Heb “for the dark places of the earth are full of dwelling places of violence.” The “dark regions” are probably the lands where the people have been exiled (see C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms [ICC], 2:157). In some contexts “dark regions” refers to Sheol (Ps 88:6) or to hiding places likened to Sheol (Ps 143:3; Lam 3:6).

[88:18]  ³ tn Heb “you cause to be far from me friend and neighbor.”

[88:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “those known by me, darkness.”

[143:3]  ⁵ tn Or “for.”

[143:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “an enemy.” The singular is used in a representative sense to describe a typical member of the larger group of enemies (note the plural “enemies” in vv. 9, 12).

[143:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “he crushes on the ground my life.”

[143:3]  ⁸ tn Or “sit.”

[143:3]  ⁹ sn Dark regions refers to Sheol, which the psalmist views as a dark place located deep in the ground (see Ps 88:6).