Mazmur 17:1

Psalm 17 ¹ 

A prayer of David.

17:1 Lord, consider my just cause! ² 

Pay attention to my cry for help!

Listen to the prayer

I sincerely offer! ³ 

Mazmur 35:14

35:14 I mourned for them as I would for a friend or my brother. ⁴ 

I bowed down ⁵  in sorrow as if I were mourning for my mother. ⁶ 

Mazmur 42:3

42:3 I cannot eat, I weep day and night; ⁷ 

all day long they say to me, ⁸  “Where is your God?”

Mazmur 80:5

80:5 You have given them tears as food; ⁹ 

you have made them drink tears by the measure. ¹⁰ 

Mazmur 84:6

84:6 As they pass through the Baca Valley, ¹¹ 

he provides a spring for them. ¹² 

The rain ¹³  even covers it with pools of water. ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 102:9

102:9 For I eat ashes as if they were bread, ¹⁵ 

and mix my drink with my tears, ¹⁶ 

Mazmur 145:19

145:19 He satisfies the desire ¹⁷  of his loyal followers; ¹⁸ 

he hears their cry for help and delivers them.

[17:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 17. The psalmist asks God to intervene on his behalf because his life is threatened by dangerous enemies. He appeals to divine justice, for he is certain of his own innocence. Because he is innocent, he expects to encounter God and receive an assuring word.

[17:1]  ² tn Heb “hear, Lord, what is just.”

[17:1]  ³ tn Heb “Listen to my prayer, [made] without lips of deceit.”

[35:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “like a friend, like a brother to me I walked about.”

[35:14]  ⁵ sn I bowed down. Bowing down was a posture for mourning. See Ps 38:6.

[35:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “like mourning for a mother [in] sorrow I bowed down.”

[42:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “My tears have become my food day and night.”

[42:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “when [they] say to me all the day.” The suffixed third masculine plural pronoun may have been accidentally omitted from the infinitive בֶּאֱמֹר (be’ÿmor, “when [they] say”). Note the term בְּאָמְרָם (bÿ’omram, “when they say”) in v. 10.

[80:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “you have fed them the food of tears.”

[80:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[by] the third part [of a measure].” The Hebrew term שָׁלִישׁ (shalish, “third part [of a measure]”) occurs only here and in Isa 40:12.

[84:6]  ¹¹ tn The translation assumes that the Hebrew phrase עֵמֶק הַבָּכָא (’emeq habbakha’) is the name of an otherwise unknown arid valley through which pilgrims to Jerusalem passed. The term בָּכָא (bakha’) may be the name of a particular type of plant or shrub that grew in this valley. O. Borowski (Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 130) suggests it is the black mulberry. Some take the phrase as purely metaphorical and relate בָּכָא to the root בָּכָה (bakhah, “to weep”). In this case one might translate, “the valley of weeping” or “the valley of affliction.”

[84:6]  ¹² tc The MT reads “a spring they make it,” but this makes little sense. Many medieval Hebrew mss, as well as the LXX, understand God to be the subject and the valley to be the object, “he [God] makes it [the valley] [into] a spring.”

[84:6]  ¹³ tn This rare word may refer to the early (or autumn) rains (see Joel 2:23).

[84:6]  ¹⁴ tc The MT reads בְּרָכוֹת (bÿrakhot, “blessings”) but the preceding reference to a “spring” favors an emendation to בְּרֵכוֹת (bÿrekhot, “pools”).

[84:6]  sn Pools of water. Because water is so necessary for life, it makes an apt symbol for divine favor and blessing. As the pilgrims traveled to Jerusalem, God provided for their physical needs and gave them a token of his favor and of the blessings awaiting them at the temple.

[102:9]  ¹⁵ sn Mourners would sometimes put ashes on their head or roll in ashes as a sign of mourning (see 2 Sam 13:19; Job 2:8; Isa 58:5).

[102:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “weeping.”

[145:19]  ¹⁷ tn In this context “desire” refers to the followers’ desire to be delivered from wicked enemies.

[145:19]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the desire of those who fear him, he does.”