Mazmur 31:12

31:12 I am forgotten, like a dead man no one thinks about; ¹ 

I am regarded as worthless, like a broken jar. ² 

Mazmur 38:13

38:13 But I am like a deaf man – I hear nothing;

I am like a mute who cannot speak. ³ 

Mazmur 52:8

52:8 But I ⁴  am like a flourishing ⁵  olive tree in the house of God;

I continually ⁶  trust in God’s loyal love.

Mazmur 109:18

109:18 He made cursing a way of life, ⁷ 

so curses poured into his stomach like water

and seeped into his bones like oil. ⁸ 

[31:12]  ¹ 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]  ² 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.

[38:13]  ³ sn I am like a deaf man…like a mute. The psalmist is like a deaf mute; he is incapable of defending himself and is vulnerable to his enemies’ deception (see v. 14).

[52:8]  ⁴ tn The disjunctive construction (vav [ו] + subject) highlights the contrast between the evildoer’s destiny (vv. 5-7) and that of the godly psalmist’s security.

[52:8]  ⁵ tn Or “luxuriant, green, leafy.”

[52:8]  ⁶ tn Or, hyperbolically, “forever and ever.”

[109:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “he put on a curse as [if it were] his garment.”

[109:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “and it came like water into his inner being, and like oil into his bones.” This may refer to this individual’s appetite for cursing. For him cursing was as refreshing as drinking water or massaging oneself with oil. Another option is that the destructive effects of a curse are in view. In this case a destructive curse invades his very being, like water or oil. Some who interpret the verse this way prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” to a conjunctive vav and interpret the prefixed verb as a jussive, “may it come!”