Mazmur 119:53

119:53 Rage takes hold of me because of the wicked,

those who reject your law.

Mazmur 119:158

119:158 I take note of the treacherous and despise them,

because they do not keep your instructions. ¹ 

Mazmur 119:1

Psalm 119 ² 

א (Alef)

119:1 How blessed are those whose actions are blameless, ³ 

who obey ⁴  the law of the Lord.

1 Samuel 15:11

15:11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from me and has not done what I told him to do.” Samuel became angry and he cried out to the Lord all that night.

Yeremia 9:1

9:1 (8:23) ⁵  I wish that my head were a well full of water ⁶ 

and my eyes were a fountain full of tears!

If they were, I could cry day and night

for those of my dear people ⁷  who have been killed.

Yeremia 9:18

9:18 I said, “Indeed, ⁸  let them come quickly and sing a song of mourning for us.

Let them wail loudly until tears stream from our own eyes

and our eyelids overflow with water.

Yeremia 13:17

13:17 But if you will not pay attention to this warning, ⁹ 

I will weep alone because of your arrogant pride.

I will weep bitterly and my eyes will overflow with tears ¹⁰ 

because you, the Lord’s flock, ¹¹  will be carried ¹²  into exile.”

Yeremia 14:17

Lament over Present Destruction and Threat of More to Come

14:17 “Tell these people this, Jeremiah: ¹³ 

‘My eyes overflow with tears

day and night without ceasing. ¹⁴ 

For my people, my dear children, ¹⁵  have suffered a crushing blow.

They have suffered a serious wound. ¹⁶ 

Yehezkiel 9:4

9:4 The Lord said to him, “Go through the city of Jerusalem ¹⁷  and put a mark ¹⁸  on the foreheads of the people who moan and groan over all the abominations practiced in it.”

Lukas 19:41

Jesus Weeps for Jerusalem under Judgment

19:41 Now ¹⁹  when Jesus ²⁰  approached ²¹  and saw the city, he wept over it,

Roma 9:2-3

9:2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ²²  9:3 For I could wish ²³  that I myself were accursed – cut off from Christ – for the sake of my people, ²⁴  my fellow countrymen, ²⁵ 

[119:158]  ¹ tn Heb “your word.”

[119:1]  ² sn Psalm 119. The psalmist celebrates God’s law and the guidance it provides his people. He expresses his desire to know God’s law thoroughly so that he might experience the blessings that come to those who obey it. This lengthy psalm exhibits an elaborate acrostic pattern. The psalm is divided into twenty-two sections (corresponding to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet), each of which is comprised of eight verses. Each of the verses in the first section (vv. 1-8) begins with the letter alef (א), the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This pattern continues throughout the psalm as each new section highlights a successive letter of the alphabet. Each verse in section two (vv. 9-16) begins with the second letter of the alphabet, each verse in section three (vv. 17-24) with the third letter, etc. This rigid pattern creates a sense of order and completeness and may have facilitated memorization.

[119:1]  ³ tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness of those who are blameless of way.”

[119:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “walk in.”

[9:1]  ⁵ sn Beginning with 9:1, the verse numbers through 9:26 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 9:1 ET = 8:23 HT, 9:2 ET = 9:1 HT, 9:3 ET = 9:2 HT, etc., through 9:26 ET = 9:25 HT. Beginning with 10:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[9:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “I wish that my head were water.”

[9:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[9:18]  ⁸ tn The words “And I said, ‘Indeed” are not in the text. They have been supplied in the translation to try and help clarify who the speaker is who identifies with the lament of the people.

[13:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “If you will not listen to it.” For the use of the feminine singular pronoun to refer to the idea(s) expressed in the preceding verse(s), see GKC 440-41 §135.p.

[13:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Tearing [my eye] will tear and my eye will run down [= flow] with tears.”

[13:17]  sn The depth of Jeremiah’s sorrow for the sad plight of his people, if they refuse to repent, is emphasized by the triple repetition of the word “tears” twice in an emphatic verbal expression (Hebrew infinitive before finite verb) and once in the noun.

[13:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “because the Lord’s flock will…” The pronoun “you” is supplied in the translation to avoid the shift in English from the second person address at the beginning to the third person affirmation at the end. It also helps explain the metaphor of the people of Israel as God’s flock for some readers who may be unfamiliar with that metaphor.

[13:17]  ¹² tn The verb is once again in the form of “as good as done” (the Hebrew prophetic perfect).

[14:17]  ¹³ tn The word “Jeremiah” is not in the text but the address is to a second person singular and is a continuation of 14:14 where the quote starts. The word is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[14:17]  ¹⁴ tn Many of the English versions and commentaries render this an indirect or third person imperative, “Let my eyes overflow…” because of the particle אַל (’al) which introduces the phrase translated “without ceasing” (אַל־תִּדְמֶינָה, ’al-tidmenah). However, this is undoubtedly an example where the particle introduces an affirmation that something cannot be done (cf. GKC 322 §109.e). Clear examples of this are found in Pss 41:2 (41:3 HT); 50:3; Job 40:32 (41:8). God here is describing again a lamentable situation and giving his response to it. See 14:1-6 above.

[14:17]  sn Once again it is the Lord lamenting the plight of the people, now directed to them, not the people lamenting their plight to him. See 14:1-6 and the study notes on the introduction to this section and on 14:7.

[14:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “virgin daughter, my people.” The last noun here is appositional to the first two (genitive of apposition). Hence it is not ‘literally’ “virgin daughter of my people.”

[14:17]  sn This is a metaphor which occurs several times with regard to Israel, Judah, Zion, and even Sidon and Babylon. It is the poetic personification of the people, the city, or the land. Like other metaphors the quality of the comparison being alluded to must be elicited from the context. This is easy in Isa 23:12 (oppressed) and Isa 47:1 (soft and delicate) but not so easy in other places. From the nature of the context the suspicion here is that the protection the virgin was normally privileged to is being referred to and there is a reminder that the people are forfeiting it by their actions. Hence God laments for them.

[14:17]  ¹⁶ tn This is a poetic personification. To translate with the plural “serious wounds” might mislead some into thinking of literal wounds.

[14:17]  sn Compare Jer 10:19 for a similar use of this metaphor.

[9:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem.”

[9:4]  map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[9:4]  ¹⁸ tn The word translated “mark” is in Hebrew the letter ת (tav). Outside this context the only other occurrence of the word is in Job 31:35. In ancient Hebrew script this letter was written like the letter X.

[9:4]  sn For a similar concept in the Bible, see Rev 7:2-4; 13:16; 14:9, 11; 20:4; 22:4.

[19:41]  ¹⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[19:41]  ²⁰ tn Grk “he.”

[19:41]  ²¹ sn When Jesus approached and saw the city. This is the last travel note in Luke’s account (the so-called Jerusalem journey), as Jesus approached and saw the city before entering it.

[9:2]  ²² tn Grk “my sorrow is great and the anguish in my heart is unceasing.”

[9:3]  ²³ tn Or “For I would pray.” The implied condition is “if this could save my fellow Jews.”

[9:3]  ²⁴ tn Grk “brothers.” See BDAG 18-19 s.v. ἀδελφός 2.b.

[9:3]  ²⁵ tn Grk “my kinsmen according to the flesh.”