Mazmur 38:2-8

38:2 For your arrows pierce ¹  me,

and your hand presses me down. ² 

38:3 My whole body is sick because of your judgment; ³ 

I am deprived of health because of my sin. ⁴ 

38:4 For my sins overwhelm me; ⁵ 

like a heavy load, they are too much for me to bear.

38:5 My wounds ⁶  are infected and starting to smell, ⁷ 

because of my foolish sins. ⁸ 

38:6 I am dazed ⁹  and completely humiliated; ¹⁰ 

all day long I walk around mourning.

38:7 For I am overcome with shame ¹¹ 

and my whole body is sick. ¹² 

38:8 I am numb with pain and severely battered; ¹³ 

I groan loudly because of the anxiety I feel. ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 39:10-11

39:10 Please stop wounding me! ¹⁵ 

You have almost beaten me to death! ¹⁶ 

39:11 You severely discipline people for their sins; ¹⁷ 

like a moth you slowly devour their strength. ¹⁸ 

Surely all people are a mere vapor. (Selah)

Mazmur 39:1

Psalm 39 ¹⁹ 

For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of David.

39:1 I decided, ²⁰  “I will watch what I say

and make sure I do not sin with my tongue. ²¹ 

I will put a muzzle over my mouth

while in the presence of an evil man.” ²² 

1 Samuel 5:6-7

5:6 The Lord attacked ²³  the residents of Ashdod severely, bringing devastation on them. He struck the people of ²⁴  both Ashdod and the surrounding area with sores. ²⁵  5:7 When the people ²⁶  of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel should not remain with us, for he has attacked ²⁷  both us and our god Dagon!”

1 Samuel 5:9

5:9 But after it had been moved the Lord attacked ²⁸  that city as well, causing a great deal of panic. He struck all the people of that city ²⁹  with sores. ³⁰ 

1 Samuel 5:11

5:11 So they assembled ³¹  all the leaders of the Philistines and said, “Get the ark of the God of Israel out of here! Let it go back to its own place so that it won’t kill us ³²  and our ³³  people!” The terror ³⁴  of death was throughout the entire city; God was attacking them very severely there. ³⁵ 

1 Samuel 6:9

6:9 But keep an eye on it. If it should go up by the way of its own border to Beth Shemesh, then he has brought this great calamity on us. But if that is not the case, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us; rather, it just happened to us by accident.”

Ayub 16:21

16:21 and ³⁶  he contends with God on behalf of man

as a man ³⁷  pleads ³⁸  for his friend.

Ayub 33:7

33:7 Therefore no fear of me should terrify you,

nor should my pressure ³⁹  be heavy on you. ⁴⁰ 

[38:2]  ¹ tn The verb Hebrew נָחַת (nakhat) apparently here means “penetrate, pierce” (note the use of the Qal in Prov 17:10). The psalmist pictures the Lord as a warrior who shoots arrows at him (see Ps 7:12-13).

[38:2]  ² tn Heb “and your hand [?] upon me.” The meaning of the verb נָחַת (nakhat) is unclear in this context. It is preferable to emend the form to וַתָּנַח (vattanakh) from the verb נוּחַ (nuakh, “rest”). In this case the text would read literally, “and your hand rests upon me” (see Isa 25:10, though the phrase is used in a positive sense there, unlike Ps 38:2).

[38:3]  ³ tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh from before your anger.” “Anger” here refers metonymically to divine judgment, which is the practical effect of God’s anger at the psalmist’s sin.

[38:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “there is no health in my bones from before my sin.”

[38:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “pass over my head.”

[38:5]  ⁶ sn The reference to wounds may be an extension of the metaphorical language of v. 2. The psalmist pictures himself as one whose flesh is ripped and torn by arrows.

[38:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “my wounds stink, they are festering” (cf. NEB).

[38:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “from before my foolishness.”

[38:6]  ⁹ tn The verb’s precise shade of meaning in this context is not entirely clear. The verb, which literally means “to bend,” may refer to the psalmist’s posture. In Isa 21:3 it seems to mean “be confused, dazed.”

[38:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I am bowed down to excess.”

[38:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for my loins are filled with shame.” The “loins” are viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s emotions. The present translation assumes that נִקְלֶה (niqleh) is derived from קָלָה (qalah, “be dishonored”). Some derive it instead from a homonymic root קָלָה (qalah), meaning “to roast.” In this case one might translate “fever” (cf. NEB “my loins burn with fever”).

[38:7]  ¹² tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh” (see v. 3).

[38:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “I am numb and crushed to excess.”

[38:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I roar because of the moaning of my heart.”

[39:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “remove from upon me your wound.”

[39:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “from the hostility of your hand I have come to an end.”

[39:11]  ¹⁷ tn “with punishments on account of sin you discipline a man.”

[39:11]  ¹⁸ tc Heb “you cause to dissolve, like a moth, his desired [thing].” The translation assumes an emendation of חֲמוּדוֹ (khamudo, “his desirable [thing]”) to חֶמְדוֹ (khemdo, “his loveliness” [or “beauty”]), a reading that is supported by a few medieval Hebrew mss.

[39:1]  ¹⁹ sn Psalm 39. The psalmist laments his frailty and mortality as he begs the Lord to take pity on him and remove his disciplinary hand.

[39:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I said.”

[39:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “I will watch my ways, from sinning with my tongue.”

[39:1]  ²² sn The psalmist wanted to voice a lament to the Lord (see vv. 4-6), but he hesitated to do so in the presence of evil men, for such words might be sinful if they gave the wicked an occasion to insult God. See C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 1:345.

[5:6]  ²³ tn Heb “the hand of the Lord was heavy upon.”

[5:6]  ²⁴ tn The words “the people of” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:6]  ²⁵ tc The LXX and Vulgate add the following: “And mice multiplied in their land, and the terror of death was throughout the entire city.”

[5:6]  tn Or “tumors” (so ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NCV “growths on their skin”; KJV “emerods”; NAB “hemorrhoids.”

[5:7]  ²⁶ tn Heb “men.”

[5:7]  ²⁷ tn Heb “for his hand is severe upon.”

[5:9]  ²⁸ tn Heb “the hand of the Lord was against the city.”

[5:9]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and he struck the men of the city from small and to great.”

[5:9]  ³⁰ tn See the note on this term in v. 6. Cf. KJV “and they had emerods in their secret parts.”

[5:11]  ³¹ tn Heb “and they sent and gathered.”

[5:11]  ³² tn Heb “me.”

[5:11]  ³³ tn Heb “my.”

[5:11]  ³⁴ tn Or “panic.”

[5:11]  ³⁵ tn Heb “the hand of God was very heavy there.”

[16:21]  ³⁶ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 240) alters this slightly to read “Would that” or “Ah! if only.”

[16:21]  ³⁷ tn This is the simple translation of the expression “son of man” in Job. But some commentators wish to change the word בֵּן (ben, “son”) to בֵּין (ben, “between”). It would then be “[as] between a man and [for] his friend.” Even though a few mss have this reading, it is to be rejected. But see J. Barr, “Some Notes on ‘ben’ in Classical Hebrew,” JSS 23 (1978): 1-22.

[16:21]  ³⁸ tn The verb is supplied from the parallel clause.

[33:7]  ³⁹ tc The noun means “my pressure; my burden” in the light of the verb אָכֲף (’akhaf, “to press on; to grip tightly”). In the parallel passages the text used “hand” and “rod” in the hand to terrify. The LXX has “hand” here for this word. But simply changing it to “hand” is ruled out because the verb is masculine.

[33:7]  ⁴⁰ tn See Job 9:34 and 13:21.