Mazmur 6:3

6:3 I am absolutely terrified, ¹ 

and you, Lord – how long will this continue? ² 

Mazmur 39:2

39:2 I was stone silent; ³ 

I held back the urge to speak. ⁴ 

My frustration grew; ⁵ 

[6:3]  ¹ tn Heb “my being is very terrified.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.

[6:3]  ² tn Heb “and you, Lord, how long?” The suffering psalmist speaks in broken syntax. He addresses God, but then simply cries out with a brief, but poignant, question: How long will this (= his suffering) continue?

[39:2]  ³ tn Heb “I was mute [with] silence.”

[39:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “I was quiet from good.” He kept quiet, resisting the urge to find emotional release and satisfaction by voicing his lament.

[39:2]  sn I held back the urge to speak. For a helpful discussion of the relationship (and tension) between silence and complaint in ancient Israelite lamentation, see E. S. Gerstenberger, Psalms, Part I (FOTL), 166-67.

[39:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “and my pain was stirred up.” Emotional pain is in view here.