Mazmur 38:1-8

Psalm 38 ¹ 

A psalm of David, written to get God’s attention. ² 

38:1 O Lord, do not continue to rebuke me in your anger!

Do not continue to punish me in your raging fury! ³ 

38:2 For your arrows pierce ⁴  me,

and your hand presses me down. ⁵ 

38:3 My whole body is sick because of your judgment; ⁶ 

I am deprived of health because of my sin. ⁷ 

38:4 For my sins overwhelm me; ⁸ 

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

38:5 My wounds ⁹  are infected and starting to smell, ¹⁰ 

because of my foolish sins. ¹¹ 

38:6 I am dazed ¹²  and completely humiliated; ¹³ 

all day long I walk around mourning.

38:7 For I am overcome with shame ¹⁴ 

and my whole body is sick. ¹⁵ 

38:8 I am numb with pain and severely battered; ¹⁶ 

I groan loudly because of the anxiety I feel. ¹⁷ 

Bilangan 11:33-34

11:33 But while the meat was still between their teeth, before they chewed it, ¹⁸  the anger of the Lord burned against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague.

11:34 So the name of that place was called Kibroth Hattaavah, ¹⁹  because there they buried the people that craved different food. ²⁰ 

Bilangan 12:10-13

12:10 When ²¹  the cloud departed from above the tent, Miriam became ²²  leprous ²³  as snow. Then Aaron looked at ²⁴  Miriam, and she was leprous!

The Intercession of Moses

12:11 So Aaron said to Moses, “O my lord, ²⁵  please do not hold this sin against us, in which we have acted foolishly and have sinned! 12:12 Do not let her be like a baby born dead, whose flesh is half-consumed when it comes out of its ²⁶  mother’s womb!”

12:13 Then Moses cried to the Lord, “Heal her now, O God.” ²⁷ 

Bilangan 21:5-9

21:5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, for there is no bread or water, and we ²⁸  detest this worthless ²⁹  food.”

21:6 So the Lord sent poisonous ³⁰  snakes ³¹  among the people, and they bit the people; many people of Israel died. 21:7 Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he would take away ³²  the snakes from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

21:8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous snake and set it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks ³³  at it, he will live.” 21:9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole, so that if a snake had bitten someone, when he looked at the bronze snake he lived. ³⁴ 

Yesaya 57:17-18

57:17 I was angry because of their sinful greed;

I attacked them and angrily rejected them, ³⁵ 

yet they remained disobedient and stubborn. ³⁶ 

57:18 I have seen their behavior, ³⁷ 

but I will heal them and give them rest,

and I will once again console those who mourn. ³⁸ 

Yeremia 2:19

2:19 Your own wickedness will bring about your punishment.

Your unfaithful acts will bring down discipline on you. ³⁹ 

Know, then, and realize how utterly harmful ⁴⁰ 

it was for you to reject me, the Lord your God, ⁴¹ 

to show no respect for me,” ⁴² 

says the Lord God who rules over all. ⁴³ 

Ratapan 3:39

3:39 Why should any living person ⁴⁴  complain

when punished for his sins? ⁴⁵ 

[38:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 38. The author asks the Lord to deliver him from his enemies. He confesses his sin and recognizes that the crisis he faces is the result of divine discipline. Yet he begs the Lord not to reject him.

[38:1]  ² tn The Hebrew text reads simply, “to cause to remember.” The same form, the Hiphil infinitive of זָכַר (zakhar, “remember”), also appears in the heading of Ps 70. Some understand this in the sense of “for the memorial offering,” but it may carry the idea of bringing one’s plight to God’s attention (see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 303).

[38:1]  ³ tn The words “continue to” are supplied in the translation of both lines. The following verses make it clear that the psalmist is already experiencing divine rebuke/punishment. He asks that it might cease.

[38:1]  sn Compare Ps 38:1 with Ps 6:1, which has similar wording.

[38:2]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “there is no health in my bones from before my sin.”

[38:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “pass over my head.”

[38:5]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my wounds stink, they are festering” (cf. NEB).

[38:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from before my foolishness.”

[38:6]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Heb “I am bowed down to excess.”

[38:7]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “there is no soundness in my flesh” (see v. 3).

[38:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I am numb and crushed to excess.”

[38:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I roar because of the moaning of my heart.”

[11:33]  ¹⁸ tn The verb is a prefixed conjugation, normally an imperfect tense. But coming after the adverb טֶּרֶם (terem) it is treated as a preterite.

[11:34]  ¹⁹ sn The name “the graves of the ones who craved” is again explained by a wordplay, a popular etymology. In Hebrew קִבְרוֹת הַתַּאֲוָה (qivrot hatta’avah) is the technical name. It is the place that the people craved the meat, longing for the meat of Egypt, and basically rebelled against God. The naming marks another station in the wilderness where the people failed to accept God’s good gifts with grace and to pray for their other needs to be met.

[11:34]  ²⁰ tn The words “different food” are implied, and are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[12:10]  ²¹ tn The disjunctive vav (ו) is here introducing a circumstantial clause of time.

[12:10]  ²² tn There is no verb “became” in this line. The second half of the line is introduced with the particle הִנֵה (hinneh, “look, behold”) in its archaic sense. This deictic use is intended to make the reader focus on Miriam as well.

[12:10]  ²³ sn The word “leprosy” and “leprous” covers a wide variety of skin diseases, and need not be limited to the actual disease of leprosy known today as Hansen’s disease. The description of it here has to do with snow, either the whiteness or the wetness. If that is the case then there would be open wounds and sores – like Job’s illness (see M. Noth, Numbers [OTL], 95-96).

[12:10]  ²⁴ tn Heb “turned to.”

[12:11]  ²⁵ tn The expression בִּי אֲדֹנִי (bi ’adoni, “O my lord”) shows a good deal of respect for Moses by Aaron. The expression is often used in addressing God.

[12:12]  ²⁶ tc The words “its mother” and “its flesh” are among the so-called tiqqune sopherim, or “emendations of the scribes.” According to this tradition the text originally had here “our mother” and “our flesh,” but the ancient scribes changed these pronouns from the first person to the third person. Apparently they were concerned that the image of Moses’ mother giving birth to a baby with physical defects of the sort described here was somehow inappropriate, given the stature and importance of Moses.

[12:13]  ²⁷ tc Some scholars emend אֵל (’el, “God”) to עַל(’al, “no”). The effect of this change may be seen in the NAB: “‘Please, not this! Pray, heal her!’”

[21:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “our souls.”

[21:5]  ²⁹ tn The Israelites’ opinion about the manna was clear enough – “worthless.” The word used is קְלֹקֵל (qÿloqel, “good for nothing, worthless, miserable”).

[21:6]  ³⁰ tn Heb “fiery.”

[21:6]  ³¹ tn The designation of the serpents/ snakes is נְחָשִׁים (nÿkhashim), which is similar to the word for “bronze” (נְחֹשֶׁת, nÿkhoshet). This has led some scholars to describe the serpents as bronze in color. The description of them as fiery indicates they were poisonous. Perhaps the snake in question is a species of adder.

[21:7]  ³² tn The verb is the Hiphil jussive with a vav (ו) consecutive from the verb סוּר (sur); after the imperative this form may be subordinated to become a purpose clause.

[21:8]  ³³ tn The word order is slightly different in Hebrew: “and it shall be anyone who is bitten when he looks at it he shall live.”

[21:9]  ³⁴ sn The image of the snake was to be a symbol of the curse that the Israelites were experiencing; by lifting the snake up on a pole Moses was indicating that the curse would be drawn away from the people – if they looked to it, which was a sign of faith. This symbol was later stored in the temple, until it became an object of worship and had to be removed (2 Kgs 18:4). Jesus, of course, alluded to it and used it as an illustration of his own mission. He would become the curse, and be lifted up, so that people who looked by faith to him would live (John 3:14). For further material, see D. J. Wiseman, “Flying Serpents,” TynBul 23 (1972): 108-10; and K. R. Joines, “The Bronze Serpent in the Israelite Cult,” JBL 87 (1968): 245-56.

[57:17]  ³⁵ tn Heb “and I struck him, hiding, and I was angry.” פָּנַיִם (panayim, “face”) is the implied object of “hiding.”

[57:17]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and he walked [as an] apostate in the way of his heart.”

[57:18]  ³⁷ tn Heb “his ways” (so KJV, NASB, NIV); TEV “how they acted.”

[57:18]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and I will restore consolation to him, to his mourners.”

[2:19]  ³⁹ tn Or “teach you a lesson”; Heb “rebuke/chide you.”

[2:19]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “how evil and bitter.” The reference is to the consequences of their acts. This is a figure of speech (hendiadys) where two nouns or adjectives joined by “and” introduce a main concept modified by the other noun or adjective.

[2:19]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “to leave the Lord your God.” The change in person is intended to ease the problem of the rapid transition, which is common in Hebrew style but not in English, from third to first person between this line and the next.

[2:19]  ⁴² tn Heb “and no fear of me was on you.”

[2:19]  ⁴³ tn Heb “the Lord Yahweh, [the God of] hosts.” For the title Lord God see the study note on 1:6. For the title “who rules over all” see the following study note. The title “the Lord who rules over all” is a way of rendering the title “Yahweh of armies.” It is an abbreviation of a longer title “Yahweh the God of armies” which occurs five times in Jeremiah (see, e.g., 44:7). The abbreviated title occurs seventy-seven times in the book of Jeremiah. On thirty-two occasions it is further qualified by the title “the God of Israel,” showing his special relation to Israel. On six occasions it is preceded by the title “Lord” (see, e.g., 46:10) and twice it is preceded by the title “the King” (see, e.g., 51:17). Both titles emphasize his sovereignty. Twice it is said that he is the maker of all things (10:16; 51:19), and once it is said that he made the earth and the people and animals on it and gives them into the control of whomever he wishes (27:4-5). On two occasions it is emphasized that he also made the heavenly elements and controls the natural elements of wind, rain, thunder, and hail (31:35; 51:14-16). All this is consistent with usage elsewhere where the “armies” over which he has charge are identified as (1) the angels which surround his throne (Isa 6:3, 5; 1 Kgs 22:19) and which he sends to protect his servants (2 Kgs 6:17), (2) the natural forces of thunder, rain, and hail (Isa 29:6; Josh 10:11; Judg 5:4, 5) through which he sends the enemy into panic and “gums” up their chariot wheels, (3) the armies of Israel (1 Sam 17:45) which he leads into battle (Num 10:34-35; Josh 5:14, 15) and for whom he fights as a mighty warrior (Exod 15:3; Isa 42:13; Ps 24:8), and even (4) the armies of the nations which he musters against his disobedient people (Isa 13:14). This title is most commonly found in the messenger formula “Thus says…” introducing both oracles of judgment (on Israel [e.g., 9:7, 15] and on the nations [e.g. 46:19; 50:18]; and see in general 25:29-32). It emphasizes his sovereignty as the king and creator, the lord of creation and of history, and the just judge who sees and knows all (11:20; 20:12) and judges each person and nation according to their actions (Jer 32:18-19). In the first instance (in the most dominant usage) this will involve the punishment of his own people through the agency of the Babylonians (cf., e.g., 25:8-9). But it will also include the punishment of all nations, including Babylon itself (cf. Jer 25:17-26, 32-38), and will ultimately result in the restoration of his people and a new relation with them (30:8; 31:35-37).

[3:39]  ⁴⁴ tn The Hebrew word here is אָדָם (’adam) which can mean “man” or “person.” The second half of the line is more personalized to the speaking voice of the defeated soldier using גֶּבֶר (gever, “man”). See the note at 3:1.

[3:39]  ⁴⁵ tc Kethib reads the singular חֶטְאוֹ (khet’o, “his sin”), which is reflected in the LXX. Qere reads the plural חֲטָאָיו (khata’ayv, “his sins”) which is preserved in many medieval Hebrew mss and reflected in the other early versions (Aramaic Targum, Syriac Peshitta, Latin Vulgate). The external and internal evidence are not decisive in favor of either reading.

[3:39]  tn Heb “concerning his punishment.” The noun חֵטְא (khet’) has a broad range of meanings: (1) “sin,” (2) “guilt of sin” and (3) “punishment for sin,” which fits the context of calamity as discipline and punishment for sin (e.g., Lev 19:17; 20:20; 22:9; 24:15; Num 9:13; 18:22, 32; Isa 53:12; Ezek 23:49). The metonymical (cause-effect) relation between sin and punishment is clear in the expressions חֵטְא מִשְׁפַט־מָוֶת (khet’ mishpat-mavet, “sin deserving death penalty,” Deut 21:22) and חֵטְא מָוֶת (khet’ mavet, “sin unto death,” Deut 22:26). The point of this verse is that the punishment of sin can sometimes lead to death; therefore, any one who is being punished by God for his sins, and yet lives, has little to complain about.