Mazmur 141:7-8

141:7 As when one plows and breaks up the soil, ¹ 

so our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol.

141:8 Surely I am looking to you, ²  O sovereign Lord.

In you I take shelter.

Do not expose me to danger! ³ 

[141:7]  ¹ tn Heb “like splitting and breaking open in the earth.” The meaning of the statement and the point of the comparison are not entirely clear. Perhaps the psalmist is suggesting that he and other godly individuals are as good as dead; their bones are scattered about like dirt that is dug up and tossed aside.

[141:8]  ² tn Heb “my eyes [are] toward you.”

[141:8]  ³ tn Heb “do not lay bare my life.” Only here is the Piel form of the verb collocated with the term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “life”). In Isa 53:12 the Lord’s servant “lays bare (the Hiphil form of the verb is used) his life to death.”