7:21 And why do you not pardon my transgression,
and take away my iniquity?
For now I will lie down in the dust, 1
and you will seek me diligently, 2
but I will be gone.”
38:17 “Look, the grief I experienced was for my benefit. 3
You delivered me 4 from the pit of oblivion. 5
For you removed all my sins from your sight. 6
1 tn The LXX has, “for now I will depart to the earth.”
2 tn The verb שָׁחַר (shakhar) in the Piel has been translated “to seek early in the morning” because of the possible link with the word “dawn.” But the verb more properly means “to seek diligently” (by implication).
3 tn Heb “Look, for peace bitterness was to me bitter”; NAB “thus is my bitterness transformed into peace.”
4 tc The Hebrew text reads, “you loved my soul,” but this does not fit syntactically with the following prepositional phrase. חָשַׁקְתָּ (khashaqta, “you loved”), may reflect an aural error; most emend the form to חָשַׂכְת, (khasakht, “you held back”).
5 tn בְּלִי (bÿli) most often appears as a negation, meaning “without,” suggesting the meaning “nothingness, oblivion,” here. Some translate “decay” or “destruction.”
6 tn Heb “for you threw behind your back all my sins.”