Mazmur 6:1-7
KonteksFor the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments, according to the sheminith style; 2 a psalm of David.
6:1 Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger!
Do not discipline me in your raging fury! 3
6:2 Have mercy on me, 4 Lord, for I am frail!
Heal me, Lord, for my bones are shaking! 5
6:3 I am absolutely terrified, 6
and you, Lord – how long will this continue? 7
6:4 Relent, Lord, rescue me! 8
Deliver me because of your faithfulness! 9
6:5 For no one remembers you in the realm of death, 10
In Sheol who gives you thanks? 11
6:6 I am exhausted as I groan;
all night long I drench my bed in tears; 12
my tears saturate the cushion beneath me. 13
6:7 My eyes 14 grow dim 15 from suffering;
they grow weak 16 because of all my enemies. 17
Mazmur 31:9-13
Konteks31:9 Have mercy on me, for I am in distress!
My eyes grow dim 18 from suffering. 19
I have lost my strength. 20
31:10 For my life nears its end in pain;
my years draw to a close as I groan. 21
My strength fails me because of 22 my sin,
and my bones become brittle. 23
31:11 Because of all my enemies, people disdain me; 24
my neighbors are appalled by my suffering 25 –
those who know me are horrified by my condition; 26
those who see me in the street run away from me.
31:12 I am forgotten, like a dead man no one thinks about; 27
I am regarded as worthless, like a broken jar. 28
31:13 For I hear what so many are saying, 29
the terrifying news that comes from every direction. 30
When they plot together against me,
they figure out how they can take my life.
[6:1] 1 sn Psalm 6. The psalmist begs the Lord to withdraw his anger and spare his life. Having received a positive response to his prayer, the psalmist then confronts his enemies and describes how they retreat.
[6:1] 2 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term שְׁמִינִית (shÿminit, “sheminith”) is uncertain; perhaps it refers to a particular style of music. See 1 Chr 15:21.
[6:1] 3 sn The implication is that the psalmist has sinned, causing God to discipline him by bringing a life-threatening illness upon him (see vv. 2-7).
[6:2] 4 tn Or “show me favor.”
[6:2] 5 tn Normally the verb בָּהַל (bahal) refers to an emotional response and means “tremble with fear, be terrified” (see vv. 3, 10). Perhaps here the “bones” are viewed as the seat of the psalmist’s emotions. However, the verb may describe one of the effects of his physical ailment, perhaps a fever. In Ezek 7:27 the verb describes how the hands of the people will shake with fear when they experience the horrors of divine judgment.
[6:3] 6 tn Heb “my being is very terrified.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.
[6:3] 7 tn Heb “and you,
[6:4] 8 tn Heb “my being,” or “my life.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.
[6:4] 9 sn Deliver me because of your faithfulness. Though the psalmist is experiencing divine discipline, he realizes that God has made a commitment to him in the past, so he appeals to God’s faithfulness in his request for help.
[6:5] 10 tn Heb “for there is not in death your remembrance.” The Hebrew noun זֵכֶר (zekher, “remembrance”) here refers to the name of the Lord as invoked in liturgy and praise. Cf. Pss 30:4; 97:12. “Death” here refers to the realm of death where the dead reside. See the reference to Sheol in the next line.
[6:5] 11 tn The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “no one.”
[6:5] sn In Sheol who gives you thanks? According to the OT, those who descend into the realm of death/Sheol are cut off from God’s mighty deeds and from the worshiping covenant community that experiences divine intervention (Pss 30:9; 88:10-12; Isa 38:18). In his effort to elicit a positive divine response, the psalmist reminds God that he will receive no praise or glory if he allows the psalmist to die. Dead men do not praise God!
[6:6] 12 tn Heb “I cause to swim through all the night my bed.”
[6:6] 13 tn Heb “with my tears my bed I flood/melt.”
[6:7] 14 tn The Hebrew text has the singular “eye” here.
[6:7] 15 tn Or perhaps, “are swollen.”
[6:7] 16 tn Or perhaps, “grow old.”
[6:7] 17 sn In his weakened condition the psalmist is vulnerable to the taunts and threats of his enemies.
[31:9] 18 tn Or perhaps, “are swollen.”
[31:9] 19 tn Cf. Ps 6:7, which has a similar line.
[31:9] 20 tn Heb “my breath and my stomach [grow weak].” Apparently the verb in the previous line (“grow dim, be weakened”) is to be understood here. The Hebrew term נפשׁ can mean “life,” or, more specifically, “throat, breath.” The psalmist seems to be lamenting that his breathing is impaired because of the physical and emotional suffering he is forced to endure.
[31:10] 21 tn Heb “and my years in groaning.”
[31:10] 22 tn Heb “stumbles in.”
[31:10] 23 tn Heb “grow weak.”
[31:11] 24 tn Heb “because of all my enemies I am a reproach.”
[31:11] 25 tc Heb “and to my neighbors, exceedingly.” If the MT is retained, then these words probably go with what precedes. However the syntactical awkwardness of the text suggests it is textually corrupt. P. C. Craigie (Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 258) suggests that the initial mem (מ) on מְאֹד (me’od, “exceedingly”) be understood as an enclitic mem (ם) which was originally suffixed to the preceding form and then later misinterpreted. The resulting form אֵד (’ed) can then be taken as a defectively written form of אֵיד (’ed, “calamity”). If one follows this emendation, then the text reads literally, “and to my neighbors [I am one who experiences] calamity.” The noun פַחַד (fakhad, “[object of] horror”) occurs in the next line; אֵיד and פַחַד appear in parallelism elsewhere (see Prov 1:26-27).
[31:11] 26 tn Heb “and [an object of ] horror to those known by me.”
[31:12] 27 tn Heb “I am forgotten, like a dead man, from [the] heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the center of one’s thoughts.
[31:12] 28 tn Heb “I am like a broken jar.” One throws away a broken jar without a second thought because it is considered worthless and useless.
