Mazmur 40:6-8
Konteks40:6 Receiving sacrifices and offerings are not your primary concern. 1
You make that quite clear to me! 2
You do not ask for burnt sacrifices and sin offerings.
40:7 Then I say,
“Look! I come!
What is written in the scroll pertains to me. 3
40:8 I want to do what pleases you, 4 my God.
Your law dominates my thoughts.” 5
Mazmur 116:12-19
Konteks116:12 How can I repay the Lord
for all his acts of kindness to me?
116:13 I will celebrate my deliverance, 6
and call on the name of the Lord.
116:14 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
before all his people.
116:15 The Lord values
the lives of his faithful followers. 7
116:16 Yes, Lord! I am indeed your servant;
I am your lowest slave. 8
You saved me from death. 9
116:17 I will present a thank offering to you,
and call on the name of the Lord.
116:18 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord
before all his people,
116:19 in the courts of the Lord’s temple,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!
Mazmur 27:7-12
Konteks27:7 Hear me, 10 O Lord, when I cry out!
Have mercy on me and answer me!
27:8 My heart tells me to pray to you, 11
and I do pray to you, O Lord. 12
Do not push your servant away in anger!
You are my deliverer! 14
Do not forsake or abandon me,
O God who vindicates me!
27:10 Even if my father and mother abandoned me, 15
the Lord would take me in. 16
27:11 Teach me how you want me to live; 17
lead me along a level path 18 because of those who wait to ambush me! 19
27:12 Do not turn me over to my enemies, 20
for false witnesses who want to destroy me testify against me. 21
Mazmur 40:11-17
Konteks40:11 O Lord, you do not withhold 22 your compassion from me.
May your loyal love and faithfulness continually protect me! 23
40:12 For innumerable dangers 24 surround me.
My sins overtake me
so I am unable to see;
they outnumber the hairs of my head
so my strength fails me. 25
40:13 Please be willing, O Lord, to rescue me!
O Lord, hurry and help me! 26
40:14 May those who are trying to snatch away my life
be totally embarrassed and ashamed! 27
May those who want to harm me
be turned back and ashamed! 28
40:15 May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!”
be humiliated 29 and disgraced! 30
40:16 May all those who seek you be happy and rejoice in you!
May those who love to experience 31 your deliverance say continually, 32
“May the Lord be praised!” 33
40:17 I am oppressed and needy! 34
May the Lord pay attention to me! 35
You are my helper and my deliverer!
O my God, do not delay!
Mazmur 126:4-5
Konteks126:4 O Lord, restore our well-being,
just as the streams in the arid south are replenished. 36
126:5 Those who shed tears as they plant
will shout for joy when they reap the harvest. 37
[40:6] 1 tn Heb “sacrifice and offering you do not desire.” The statement is exaggerated for the sake of emphasis (see Ps 51:16 as well). God is pleased with sacrifices, but his first priority is obedience and loyalty (see 1 Sam 15:22). Sacrifices and offerings apart from genuine allegiance are meaningless (see Isa 1:11-20).
[40:6] 2 tn Heb “ears you hollowed out for me.” The meaning of this odd expression is debated (this is the only collocation of “hollowed out” and “ears” in the OT). It may have been an idiomatic expression referring to making a point clear to a listener. The LXX has “but a body you have prepared for me,” a reading which is followed in Heb 10:5.
[40:7] 3 tn Heb “in the roll of the scroll it is written concerning me.” Apparently the psalmist refers to the law of God (see v. 8), which contains the commandments God desires him to obey. If this is a distinctly royal psalm, then the psalmist/king may be referring specifically to the regulations of kingship prescribed in Deut 17:14-20. See P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 (WBC), 315.
[40:8] 5 tn Heb “your law [is] in the midst of my inner parts.” The “inner parts” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s thought life and moral decision making.
[116:13] 6 tn Heb “a cup of deliverance I will lift up.” Perhaps this alludes to a drink offering the psalmist will present as he thanks the
[116:15] 7 tn Heb “precious in the eyes of the
[116:16] 8 tn Heb “I am your servant, the son of your female servant.” The phrase “son of a female servant” (see also Ps 86:16) is used of a son born to a secondary wife or concubine (Exod 23:12). In some cases the child’s father is the master of the house (see Gen 21:10, 13; Judg 9:18). The use of the expression here certainly does not imply that the
[116:16] 9 tn Heb “you have loosed my bonds.” In this context the imagery refers to deliverance from death (see v. 3).
[27:8] 11 tc Heb “concerning you my heart says, ‘Seek my face.’” The verb form “seek” is plural, but this makes no sense here, for the psalmist is addressed. The verb should be emended to a singular form. The first person pronominal suffix on “face” also makes little sense, unless it is the voice of the
[27:8] 12 tn Heb “your face, O
[27:9] 13 tn Heb “do not hide your face from me.” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).
[27:9] 14 tn Or “[source of] help.”
[27:10] 15 tn Or “though my father and mother have abandoned me.”
[27:10] 16 tn Heb “gather me in”; or “receive me.”
[27:11] 17 tn Heb “teach me your way.” The
[27:11] 18 sn The level path refers to God’s moral principles (see the parallel line), which, if followed, will keep the psalmist blameless before his accusers (see v. 12).
[27:11] 19 tn Heb “because of those who watch me [with evil intent].” See also Pss 5:8; 54:5; 56:2.
[27:12] 20 tn Heb “do not give me over to the desire of my enemies.”
[27:12] 21 tn Heb “for they have risen up against me, lying witnesses and a testifier of violence.” The form יָפֵחַ (yafeakh) is traditionally understood as a verb meaning “snort, breathe out”: “for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty” (KJV; cf. BDB 422 s.v.). A better option is to take the form as a noun meaning “a witness” (or “testifier”). See Prov 6:19; 12:17; 14:5, 25; 19:5, 9, and Hab 2:3.
[40:11] 22 tn Some (cf. NIV, NRSV) translate the verb as a request (“do not withhold”), but elsewhere in the psalms the second masculine singular prefixed form, when addressed to God and preceded by לֹא (lo’), is always indicative in mood and never has the force of a prayer (see Pss 16:10; 22:2; 44:9 51:16-17; 60:10; 108:11; cf. NEB, NASB).
[40:11] 23 tn In this line the psalmist makes the transition from confidence to petition (see v. 13). Since the prefixed verbal form in the preceding line is imperfect/indicative, one could take the verb in this line as imperfect as well and translate, “your loyal love and faithfulness continually protect me” (cf. NEB). However, the כִּי (ki) at the beginning of the next verse, if causal (“because”), is best understood as introducing a motivating argument in support of a petition. For this reason v. 11b is best taken as a prayer with the prefixed form being understood as jussive (cf. NIV, NRSV). For parallels to the proposed construction (jussive followed by כִּי + perfect introducing motivating argument), see Ps 25:21, as well as Pss 10:2-3; 22:8.
[40:12] 24 tn Or “sinful deeds.” The Hebrew term used here can have a nonmoral nuance (“dangers”) or a moral one (“sinful deeds”) depending on the context. The next line (see “my sins”) seems to favor the moral sense, but the psalmist also speaks of enemies shortly after this (v. 14).
[40:12] 25 tn Heb “and my heart abandons me.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of emotional strength and courage. For a similar idea see Ps 38:10.
[40:13] 26 tn Heb “hurry to my help.” See Pss 22:19; 38:22.
[40:14] 27 tn Heb “may they be embarrassed and ashamed together, the ones seeking my life to snatch it away.”
[40:14] 28 tn The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse (“may those…be…embarrassed and ashamed…may those…be turned back and ashamed”) are understood as jussives. The psalmist is calling judgment down on his enemies.
[40:14] sn See Ps 35:4 for a similar prayer.
[40:15] 29 tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive in this imprecation.
[40:15] 30 tn Heb “May they be humiliated according to their shame, those who say to me, ‘Aha! Aha!’”
[40:16] 31 tn Heb “those who love,” which stands metonymically for its cause, the experience of being delivered by the
[40:16] 32 tn The three prefixed verbal forms prior to the quotation are understood as jussives. The psalmist balances out his imprecation against his enemies with a prayer of blessing upon the godly.
[40:16] 33 tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive, “may the
[40:17] 34 sn See Pss 35:10; 37:14.
[40:17] 35 tn The prefixed verbal form may be taken as a jussive of prayer (as in the present translation; cf. NIV) or as an imperfect, “The
[126:4] 36 tn Heb “like the streams in the Negev.”
[126:4] sn The streams in the arid south. Y. Aharoni writes of the streams in the Negev: “These usually dry wadis collect water on rainy days from vast areas. The situation is also aggravated by floods from the desert mountains and southern Judah. For a day or two or, more frequently, for only a few hours they turn into dangerous torrents” (Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible, 26). God’s people were experiencing a “dry season” after a time of past blessing; they pray here for a “flash flood” of his renewed blessing. This does not imply that they are requesting only a brief display of God’s blessing. Rather the point of comparison is the suddenness with which the wadis swell during a rain, as well as the depth and power of these raging waters. The community desires a sudden display of divine favor in which God overwhelms them with blessings.
[126:5] 37 sn O. Borowski says regarding this passage: “The dependence on rain for watering plants, the uncertainty of the quantity and timing of the rains, and the possibility of crop failure due to pests and diseases appear to have kept the farmer in a gloomy mood during sowing” (Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 54). Perhaps the people were experiencing a literal drought, the effects of which cause them to lament their plight as they plant their seed in hopes that the rain would come. However, most take the language as metaphorical. Like a farmer sowing his seed, the covenant community was enduring hardship as they waited for a new outpouring of divine blessing. Yet they are confident that a time of restoration will come and relieve their anxiety, just as the harvest brings relief and joy to the farmer.
