Psalms 9:15

9:15 The nations fell ¹  into the pit they had made;

their feet were caught in the net they had hidden. ² 

Psalms 16:10

16:10 You will not abandon me ³  to Sheol; ⁴ 

you will not allow your faithful follower ⁵  to see ⁶  the Pit. ⁷ 

Psalms 30:9

30:9 “What ⁸  profit is there in taking my life, ⁹ 

in my descending into the Pit? ¹⁰ 

Can the dust of the grave ¹¹  praise you?

Can it declare your loyalty? ¹² 

Psalms 35:7

35:7 I did not harm them, but they hid a net to catch me

and dug a pit to trap me. ¹³ 

[9:15]  ¹ tn Heb “sank down.”

[9:15]  ² sn The hostility of the nations against God’s people is their downfall, for it prompts God to intervene and destroy them. See also Ps 7:15-16.

[16:10]  ³ tn Or “my life.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.

[16:10]  ⁴ sn In ancient Israelite cosmology Sheol is the realm of the dead, viewed as being under the earth’s surface. See L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 165-76.

[16:10]  ⁵ tn A “faithful follower” (חָסִיד [khasid], traditionally rendered “holy one”) is one who does what is right in God’s eyes and remains faithful to God (see Pss 4:3; 12:1; 18:25; 31:23; 37:28; 86:2; 97:10). The psalmist here refers to himself, as the parallel line (“You will not abandon me to Sheol”) indicates.

[16:10]  ⁶ tn That is, “experience.” The psalmist is confident that the Lord will protect him in his present crisis (see v. 1) and prevent him from dying.

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

[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!”

[35:7]  ⁷ tc Heb “for without cause they hid for me a pit of their net, without cause they dug for my life.” It appears that the words “pit” and “net” have been transposed. “Net” goes with the verb “hid” in the first line (see v. 8, as well as Pss 9:15; 31:4), while “pit” goes with the verb “dug” in the second line (see Ps 7:15).