Mazmur 25:17

25:17 Deliver me from my distress; ¹ 

rescue me from my suffering! ² 

Mazmur 85:2

85:2 You pardoned ³  the wrongdoing of your people;

you forgave ⁴  all their sin. (Selah)

Mazmur 119:22

119:22 Spare me ⁵  shame and humiliation,

for I observe your rules.

Mazmur 119:39

119:39 Take away the insults that I dread! ⁶ 

Indeed, ⁷  your regulations are good.

Mazmur 119:43

119:43 Do not completely deprive me of a truthful testimony, ⁸ 

for I await your justice.

[25:17]  ¹ tc Heb “the distresses of my heart, they make wide.” The text makes little if any sense as it stands, unless this is an otherwise unattested intransitive use of the Hiphil of רָחַב (rakhav, “be wide”). It is preferable to emend the form הִרְחִיבוּ (hirkhivu; Hiphil perfect third plural “they make wide”) to הַרְחֵיב (harkhev; Hiphil imperative masculine singular “make wide”). (The final vav [ו] can be joined to the following word and taken as a conjunction.) In this case one can translate, “[in/from] the distresses of my heart, make wide [a place for me],” that is, “deliver me from the distress I am experiencing.” For the expression “make wide [a place for me],” see Ps 4:1.

[25:17]  ² tn Heb “from my distresses lead me out.”

[85:2]  ³ tn Heb “lifted up.”

[85:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “covered over.”

[119:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “roll away from upon me.” Some derive the imperatival form גַּל (gal) from גָּלָה (galah, “uncover,” as in v. 18), but here the form is from גָּלַל (galal, “roll”; see Josh 5:9, where חֶרְפָּה [kherpah, “shame; reproach”] also appears as object of the verb). Some, following the lead of a Dead Sea scroll (11QPs^a), emend the form to גֹּל (gol).

[119:39]  ⁶ tn Heb “my reproach that I fear.”

[119:39]  ⁷ tn Or “for.”

[119:43]  ⁸ tn Heb “do not snatch from my mouth a word of truth to excess.” The psalmist wants to be able to give a reliable testimony about the Lord’s loyal love (vv. 41-42), but if God does not intervene, the psalmist will be deprived of doing so, for the evidence of such love (i.e., deliverance) will be lacking.