Mazmur 42:1--44:26
KonteksBook 2
(Psalms 42-72)
For the music director; a well-written song 2 by the Korahites.
42:1 As a deer 3 longs 4 for streams of water,
so I long 5 for you, O God!
for the living God.
I say, 7 “When will I be able to go and appear in God’s presence?” 8
42:3 I cannot eat, I weep day and night; 9
all day long they say to me, 10 “Where is your God?”
42:4 I will remember and weep! 11
For I was once walking along with the great throng to the temple of God,
shouting and giving thanks along with the crowd as we celebrated the holy festival. 12
42:5 Why are you depressed, 13 O my soul? 14
Why are you upset? 15
Wait for God!
For I will again give thanks
to my God for his saving intervention. 16
so I will pray to you while I am trapped here in the region of the upper Jordan, 18
from Hermon, 19 from Mount Mizar. 20
42:7 One deep stream calls out to another 21 at the sound of your waterfalls; 22
all your billows and waves overwhelm me. 23
42:8 By day the Lord decrees his loyal love, 24
and by night he gives me a song, 25
a prayer 26 to the living God.
42:9 I will pray 27 to God, my high ridge: 28
“Why do you ignore 29 me?
Why must I walk around mourning 30
because my enemies oppress me?”
42:10 My enemies’ taunts cut into me to the bone, 31
as they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” 32
42:11 Why are you depressed, 33 O my soul? 34
Why are you upset? 35
Wait for God!
For I will again give thanks
to my God for his saving intervention. 36
43:1 Vindicate me, O God!
Fight for me 38 against an ungodly nation!
Deliver me 39 from deceitful and evil men! 40
43:2 For you are the God who shelters me. 41
Why do you reject me? 42
Why must I walk around 43 mourning 44
because my enemies oppress me?
43:3 Reveal 45 your light 46 and your faithfulness!
They will lead me, 47
they will escort 48 me back to your holy hill, 49
and to the place where you live. 50
43:4 Then I will go 51 to the altar of God,
to the God who gives me ecstatic joy, 52
so that I express my thanks to you, 53 O God, my God, with a harp.
43:5 Why are you depressed, 54 O my soul? 55
Why are you upset? 56
Wait for God!
For I will again give thanks
to my God for his saving intervention. 57
For the music director; by the Korahites, a well-written song. 59
44:1 O God, we have clearly heard; 60
our ancestors 61 have told us
what you did 62 in their days,
in ancient times. 63
44:2 You, by your power, 64 defeated nations and settled our fathers on their land; 65
you crushed 66 the people living there 67 and enabled our ancestors to occupy it. 68
44:3 For they did not conquer 69 the land by their swords,
and they did not prevail by their strength, 70
but rather by your power, 71 strength 72 and good favor, 73
for you were partial to 74 them.
44:4 You are my 75 king, O God!
Decree 76 Jacob’s 77 deliverance!
44:5 By your power 78 we will drive back 79 our enemies;
by your strength 80 we will trample down 81 our foes! 82
44:6 For I do not trust in my bow,
and I do not prevail by my sword.
44:7 For you deliver 83 us from our enemies;
you humiliate 84 those who hate us.
44:8 In God I boast all day long,
and we will continually give thanks to your name. (Selah)
44:9 But 85 you rejected and embarrassed us!
You did not go into battle with our armies. 86
44:10 You made us retreat 87 from the enemy.
Those who hate us take whatever they want from us. 88
44:11 You handed us 89 over like sheep to be eaten;
you scattered us among the nations.
44:12 You sold 90 your people for a pittance; 91
you did not ask a high price for them. 92
44:13 You made us 93 an object of disdain to our neighbors;
those who live on our borders taunt and insult us. 94
44:14 You made us 95 an object of ridicule 96 among the nations;
foreigners treat us with contempt. 97
44:15 All day long I feel humiliated 98
and am overwhelmed with shame, 99
44:16 before the vindictive enemy
who ridicules and insults me. 100
44:17 All this has happened to us, even though we have not rejected you 101
or violated your covenant with us. 102
44:18 We have not been unfaithful, 103
nor have we disobeyed your commands. 104
44:19 Yet you have battered us, leaving us a heap of ruins overrun by wild dogs; 105
you have covered us with darkness. 106
44:20 If we had rejected our God, 107
and spread out our hands in prayer to another god, 108
44:21 would not God discover it,
for he knows 109 one’s thoughts? 110
44:22 Yet because of you 111 we are killed all day long;
we are treated like 112 sheep at the slaughtering block. 113
44:23 Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord?
Wake up! 114 Do not reject us forever!
44:24 Why do you look the other way, 115
and ignore 116 the way we are oppressed and mistreated? 117
44:25 For we lie in the dirt,
with our bellies pressed to the ground. 118
44:26 Rise up and help us!
Rescue us 119 because of your loyal love!
[42:1] 1 sn Psalm 42. The psalmist recalls how he once worshiped in the Lord’s temple, but laments that he is now oppressed by enemies in a foreign land. Some medieval Hebrew
[42:1] 2 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.
[42:1] 3 tn Since the accompanying verb is feminine in form, the noun אָיִּל (’ayyil, “male deer”) should be emended to אַיֶּלֶת (’ayyelet, “female deer”). Haplography of the letter tav has occurred; note that the following verb begins with tav.
[42:1] 4 tn Or “pants [with thirst].”
[42:1] 5 tn Or “my soul pants [with thirst].” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).
[42:2] 6 tn Or “my soul thirsts.”
[42:2] 7 tn The words “I say” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarification.
[42:2] 8 tn Heb “When will I go and appear [to] the face of God?” Some emend the Niphal verbal form אֵרָאֶה (’era’eh, “I will appear”) to a Qal אֶרְאֶה (’er’eh, “I will see”; see Gen 33:10), but the Niphal can be retained if one understands ellipsis of אֶת (’et) before “face” (see Exod 34:24; Deut 31:11).
[42:3] 9 tn Heb “My tears have become my food day and night.”
[42:3] 10 tn Heb “when [they] say to me all the day.” The suffixed third masculine plural pronoun may have been accidentally omitted from the infinitive בֶּאֱמֹר (be’ÿmor, “when [they] say”). Note the term בְּאָמְרָם (bÿ’omram, “when they say”) in v. 10.
[42:4] 11 tn Heb “These things I will remember and I will pour out upon myself my soul.” “These things” are identified in the second half of the verse as those times when the psalmist worshiped in the
[42:4] 12 tc Heb “for I was passing by with the throng [?], I was walking with [?] them to the house of God; with a voice of a ringing shout and thanksgiving a multitude was observing a festival.” The Hebrew phrase בַּסָּךְ אֶדַּדֵּם (bassakh ’eddaddem, “with the throng [?] I was walking with [?]”) is particularly problematic. The noun סָךְ (sakh) occurs only here. If it corresponds to הָמוֹן (hamon, “multitude”) then one can propose a meaning “throng.” The present translation assumes this reading (cf. NIV, NRSV). The form אֶדַּדֵּם (“I will walk with [?]”) is also very problematic. The form can be taken as a Hitpael from דָּדָה (dadah; this verb possibly appears in Isa 38:15), but the pronominal suffix is problematic. For this reason many emend the form to ם[י]אַדִּרִ (’adirim, “nobles”) or ם-רִ[י]אַדִ (’adirim, “great,” with enclitic mem [ם]). The present translation understands the latter and takes the adjective “great” as modifying “throng.” If one emends סָךְ (sakh, “throng [?]”) to סֹךְ (sokh, “shelter”; see the Qere of Ps 27:5), then ר[י]אַדִּ (’addir) could be taken as a divine epithet, “[in the shelter of] the majestic one,” a reading which may find support in the LXX and Syriac Peshitta.
[42:5] 13 tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”
[42:5] 14 sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.
[42:5] 15 tn Heb “and [why] are you in turmoil upon me?” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries on the descriptive present nuance of the preceding imperfect. See GKC 329 §111.t.
[42:5] 16 tc Heb “for again I will give him thanks, the saving acts of his face.” The verse division in the Hebrew text is incorrect. אֱלֹהַי (’elohay, “my God”) at the beginning of v. 7 belongs with the end of v. 6 (see the corresponding refrains in 42:11 and 43:5, both of which end with “my God” after “saving acts of my face”). The Hebrew term פָּנָיו (panayv, “his face”) should be emended to פְּנֵי (pÿney, “face of”). The emended text reads, “[for] the saving acts of the face of my God,” that is, the saving acts associated with God’s presence/intervention.
[42:6] 17 tn Heb “my God, upon me my soul bows down.” As noted earlier, “my God” belongs with the end of v. 6.
[42:6] 18 tn Heb “therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan.” “Remember” is here used metonymically for prayer (see vv. 8-9). As the next line indicates, the region of the upper Jordan, where the river originates, is in view.
[42:6] 19 tc Heb “Hermons.” The plural form of the name occurs only here in the OT. Some suggest the plural refers to multiple mountain peaks (cf. NASB) or simply retain the plural in the translation (cf. NEB), but the final mem (ם) is probably dittographic (note that the next form in the text begins with the letter mem) or enclitic. At a later time it was misinterpreted as a plural marker and vocalized accordingly.
[42:6] 20 tn The Hebrew term מִצְעָר (mits’ar) is probably a proper name (“Mizar”), designating a particular mountain in the Hermon region. The name appears only here in the OT.
[42:7] 21 tn Heb “deep calls to deep.” The Hebrew noun תְּהוֹם (tÿhom) often refers to the deep sea, but here, where it is associated with Hermon, it probably refers to mountain streams. The word can be used of streams and rivers (see Deut 8:7; Ezek 31:4).
[42:7] 22 tn The noun צִנּוֹר (tsinnor, “waterfall”) occurs only here and in 2 Sam 5:8, where it apparently refers to a water shaft. The psalmist alludes to the loud rushing sound of mountain streams and cascading waterfalls. Using the poetic device of personification, he imagines the streams calling out to each other as they hear the sound of the waterfalls.
[42:7] 23 tn Heb “pass over me” (see Jonah 2:3). As he hears the sound of the rushing water, the psalmist imagines himself engulfed in the current. By implication he likens his emotional distress to such an experience.
[42:8] 24 sn The psalmist believes that the Lord has not abandoned him, but continues to extend his loyal love. To this point in the psalm, the author has used the name “God,” but now, as he mentions the divine characteristic of loyal love, he switches to the more personal divine name Yahweh (rendered in the translation as “the
[42:8] 25 tn Heb “his song [is] with me.”
[42:8] 26 tc A few medieval Hebrew
[42:9] 27 tn The cohortative form indicates the psalmist’s resolve.
[42:9] 28 tn This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28; Pss 18:2; 31:3.
[42:9] 30 sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar idea.
[42:10] 31 tc Heb “with a shattering in my bones my enemies taunt me.” A few medieval Hebrew
[42:10] 32 sn “Where is your God?” The enemies ask this same question in v. 3.
[42:11] 33 tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”
[42:11] 34 sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.
[42:11] 35 tn Heb “and why are you in turmoil upon me?”
[42:11] 36 tc Heb “for again I will give him thanks, the saving acts of my face and my God.” The last line should be emended to read יְשׁוּעֹת פְנֵי אֱלֹהָי (yÿshu’ot fÿney ’elohay, “[for] the saving acts of the face of my God”), that is, the saving acts associated with God’s presence/intervention. This refrain is almost identical to the one in v. 5. See also Ps 43:5.
[43:1] 37 sn Psalm 43. Many medieval Hebrew
[43:1] 38 tn Or “argue my case.”
[43:1] 39 tn The imperfect here expresses a request or wish. Note the imperatives in the first half of the verse. See also v. 3.
[43:1] 40 tn Heb “from the deceitful and evil man.” The Hebrew text uses the singular form “man” in a collective sense, as the reference to a “nation” in the parallel line indicates.
[43:2] 41 tn Heb “God of my place of refuge,” that is, “God who is my place of refuge.” See Ps 31:4.
[43:2] 42 tn The question is similar to that of Ps 42:9, but זָנַח (zanakh, “reject”) is a stronger verb than שָׁכַח (shakhakh, “forget”).
[43:2] 43 tn The language is similar to that of Ps 42:9, but the Hitpael form of the verb הָלַךְ (halakh; as opposed to the Qal form in 42:9) expresses more forcefully the continuing nature of the psalmist’s distress.
[43:2] 44 sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar statement.
[43:3] 46 sn God’s deliverance is compared here to a light which will lead the psalmist back home to the Lord’s temple. Divine deliverance will in turn demonstrate the Lord’s faithfulness to his people.
[43:3] 47 tn Or “may they lead me.” The prefixed verbal forms here and in the next line may be taken as jussives.
[43:3] 49 sn In this context the Lord’s holy hill is Zion/Jerusalem. See Isa 66:20; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Zech 8:3; Pss 2:6; 15:1; 48:1; 87:1; Dan 9:16.
[43:3] 50 tn Or “to your dwelling place[s].” The plural form of the noun may indicate degree or quality; this is the
[43:4] 51 tn The cohortative expresses the psalmist’s resolve. Prefixed with the vav (ו) conjunctive it also expresses the result or outcome of the preceding verbs “lead” and “escort.”
[43:4] 52 tn Heb “to God, the joy of my happiness.” The phrase “joy of my happiness” employs an appositional genitive. Synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the degree of the psalmist’s joy. For a detailed discussion of the grammatical point with numerous examples, see Y. Avishur, “Pairs of Synonymous Words in the Construct State (and in Appositional Hendiadys) in Biblical Hebrew,” Semitics 2 (1971): 17-81.
[43:4] 53 tn The cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive probably indicates purpose (“so that”) or intention.
[43:5] 54 tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”
[43:5] 55 sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.
[43:5] 56 tn Heb “and why are you in turmoil upon me?”
[43:5] 57 tc Heb “for again I will give him thanks, the saving acts of my face and my God.” The last line should be emended to read יְשׁוּעֹת פְנֵי אֱלֹהָי (yÿshu’ot fÿney ’elohay, “[for] the saving acts of the face of my God,” that is, the saving acts associated with God’s presence/intervention. This refrain is identical to the one in Ps 42:11. See also 42:5, which differs only slightly.
[44:1] 58 sn Psalm 44. The speakers in this psalm (the worshiping community within the nation Israel) were disappointed with God. The psalm begins on a positive note, praising God for leading Israel to past military victories. Verses 1-8 appear to be a song of confidence and petition which the people recited prior to battle. But suddenly the mood changes as the nation laments a recent defeat. The stark contrast between the present and the past only heightens the nation’s confusion. Israel trusted in God for victory, but the Lord rejected them and allowed them to be humiliated in battle. If Israel had been unfaithful to God, their defeat would make sense, but the nation was loyal to the Lord. Comparing the Lord to a careless shepherd, the nation urges God to wake up and to extend his compassion to his suffering people.
[44:1] 59 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. See the note on the phrase “well-written song” in the superscription of Ps 42.
[44:1] 60 tn Heb “with our ears we have heard.”
[44:1] 61 tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 2; the same Hebrew word may be translated either “fathers” or “ancestors” depending on the context.
[44:1] 62 tn Heb “the work you worked.”
[44:1] 63 tn Heb “in the days of old.” This refers specifically to the days of Joshua, during Israel’s conquest of the land, as vv. 2-3 indicate.
[44:2] 64 tn Heb “you, your hand.”
[44:2] 65 tn Heb “dispossessed nations and planted them.” The third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1). See Ps 80:8, 15.
[44:2] 66 tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Hiphil preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive) from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil; be bad”). If retained it apparently means, “you injured; harmed.” Some prefer to derive the verb from רָעַע (“break”; cf. NEB “breaking up the peoples”), in which case the form must be revocalized as Qal (since this verb is unattested in the Hiphil).
[44:2] 68 tn Heb “and you sent them out.” The translation assumes that the third masculine plural pronoun “them” refers to the fathers (v. 1), as in the preceding parallel line. See Ps 80:11, where Israel, likened to a vine, “spreads out” its tendrils to the west and east. Another option is to take the “peoples” as the referent of the pronoun and translate, “and you sent them away,” though this does not provide as tight a parallel with the corresponding line.
[44:3] 69 tn Or “take possession of.”
[44:3] 70 tn Heb “and their arm did not save them.” The “arm” here symbolizes military strength.
[44:3] 71 tn Heb “your right hand.” The
[44:3] 73 tn Heb “light of your face.” The idiom “light of your face” probably refers to a smile (see Eccl 8:1), which in turn suggests favor and blessing (see Num 6:25; Pss 4:6; 31:16; 67:1; 80:3, 7, 19; 89:15; Dan 9:17).
[44:3] 74 tn Or “favorable toward.”
[44:4] 75 sn The speaker changes here to an individual, perhaps the worship leader or the king. The oscillation between singular (vv. 4, 6) and plural (vv. 1-3, 5, 7-8) in vv. 1-8 may reflect an antiphonal ceremony.
[44:4] 76 tc The LXX assumes a participle here (מְצַוֶּה [mÿtsavveh], “the one who commands/decrees”) which would stand in apposition to “my God.” It is possible that the MT, which has the imperative (צַוֵּה, tsavveh) form, has suffered haplography of the letter mem (ם). Note that the preceding word (אֱלֹהִים, ’elohim) ends in mem. Another option is that the MT is divided in the wrong place; perhaps one could move the final mem from אֱלֹהִים to the beginning of the next word and read מְצַוֶּה אֱלֹהָי (’elohay mÿtsavveh, “[You are my king,] my God, the one who decrees”).
[44:4] tn Or “command.” This may be the Israelites’ petition prior to the battle. See the introductory note to the psalm.
[44:4] 77 tn That is, Israel. See Pss 14:7; 22:23.
[44:5] 79 tn Heb “gore” (like an ox). If this portion of the psalm contains the song of confidence/petition the Israelites recited prior to battle, then the imperfects here and in the next line may express their expectation of victory. Another option is that the imperfects function in an emphatic generalizing manner. In this case one might translate, “you [always] drive back…you [always] trample down.”
[44:5] sn The Hebrew verb translated “drive back” is literally “gore”; the imagery is that of a powerful wild ox that “gores” its enemies and tramples them underfoot.
[44:5] 80 tn Heb “in your name.” The
[44:5] 81 sn The image of the powerful wild ox continues; see the note on the phrase “drive back” in the preceding line.
[44:5] 82 tn Heb “those who rise up [against] us.”
[44:7] 83 tn Or “have delivered,” if past successes are in view. Another option is to take the perfect as rhetorical, emphasizing that victory is certain (note the use of the imperfect in vv. 5-6).
[44:7] 84 tn Or “have humiliated,” if past successes are in view. Another option is to take the perfect as rhetorical, emphasizing that victory is certain (note the use of the imperfect in vv. 5-6).
[44:9] 85 tn The particle אַף (’af, “but”) is used here as a strong adversative contrasting the following statement with what precedes.
[44:9] 86 tn Heb “you did not go out with our armies.” The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
[44:10] 87 tn Heb “you caused us to turn backward.”
[44:10] 88 tn Heb “plunder for themselves.” The prepositional phrase לָמוֹ (lamo, “for themselves”) here has the nuance “at their will” or “as they please” (see Ps 80:6).
[44:11] 89 tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
[44:12] 90 tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
[44:12] 91 tn Heb “for what is not wealth.”
[44:12] 92 tn Heb “you did not multiply their purchase prices.”
[44:13] 93 tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
[44:13] 94 tn Heb “an [object of] taunting and [of] mockery to those around us.”
[44:14] 95 tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
[44:14] 96 tn Heb “a proverb,” or “[the subject of] a mocking song.”
[44:14] 97 tn Heb “a shaking of the head among the peoples.” Shaking the head was a derisive gesture (see Jer 18:16; Lam 2:15).
[44:15] 98 tn Heb “all the day my humiliation [is] in front of me.”
[44:15] 99 tn Heb “and the shame of my face covers me.”
[44:16] 100 tn Heb “from the voice of one who ridicules and insults, from the face of an enemy and an avenger.” See Ps 8:2.
[44:17] 101 tn Heb “we have not forgotten you.” To “forget” God refers here to worshiping false gods and thereby refusing to recognize his sovereignty (see v. 20, as well as Deut 8:19; Judg 3:7; 1 Sam 12:9; Isa 17:10; Jer 3:21; Ps 9:17).Thus the translation “we have not rejected you” has been used.
[44:17] 102 tn Heb “and we did not deal falsely with your covenant.”
[44:18] 103 tn Heb “our heart did not turn backward.” Cf. Ps 78:57.
[44:18] 104 tn Heb “and our steps did [not] turn aside from your path.” The negative particle is understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line). God’s “path” refers to his commands, i.e., the moral pathway he has prescribed for the psalmist. See Pss 17:5; 25:4.
[44:19] 105 tn Heb “yet you have battered us in a place of jackals.”
[44:19] 106 tn The Hebrew term צַלְמָוֶת (tsalmavet) has traditionally been understood as a compound noun meaning “shadow of death” (צֵל+מָוֶת [mavet + tsel]; see BDB 853 s.v. צַלְמָוֶת; cf. NASB). Other scholars prefer to vocalize the form צַלְמוּת (tsalmut) and understand it as an abstract noun (from the root צלם) meaning “darkness” (cf. NIV, NRSV). An examination of the word’s usage favors the latter derivation. It is frequently associated with darkness/night and contrasted with light/morning (see Job 3:5; 10:21-22; 12:22; 24:17; 28:3; 34:22; Ps 107:10, 14; Isa 9:1; Jer 13:16; Amos 5:8). In some cases the darkness described is associated with the realm of death (Job 10:21-22; 38:17), but this is a metaphorical application of the word and does not reflect its inherent meaning. In Ps 44:19 darkness symbolizes defeat and humiliation.
[44:20] 107 tn Heb “If we had forgotten the name of our God.” To “forget the name” here refers to rejecting the
[44:20] 108 tn Heb “and spread out your hands to another god.” Spreading out the hands was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). In its most fundamental sense זר (“another; foreign; strange”) refers to something that is outside one’s circle, often making association with it inappropriate. A “strange” god is an alien deity, an “outside god” (see L. A. Snijders, TDOT 4:54-55).
[44:21] 109 tn The active participle describes what is characteristically true.
[44:21] 110 tn Heb “would not God search out this, for he knows the hidden things of [the] heart?” The expression “search out” is used metonymically here, referring to discovery, the intended effect of a search. The “heart” (i.e., mind) is here viewed as the seat of one’s thoughts. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he would!” The point seems to be this: There is no way the Israelites who are the speakers in the psalm would reject God and turn to another god, for the omniscient God would easily discover such a sin.
[44:22] 111 tn The statement “because of you” (1) may simply indicate that God is the cause of the Israelites’ defeat (see vv. 9-14, where the nation’s situation is attributed directly to God’s activity, and cf. NEB, NRSV), or (2) it may suggest they suffer because of their allegiance to God (see Ps 69:7 and Jer 15:15). In this case one should translate, “for your sake” (cf. NASB, NIV). The citation of this verse in Rom 8:36 follows the LXX (Ps 43:23 LXX), where the Greek term ἕνεκεν (Jeneken; LXX ἕνεκα) may likewise mean “because of” or “for the sake of” (BDAG 334 s.v. ἕνεκα 1).
[44:22] 112 tn Or “regarded as.”
[44:22] 113 tn Heb “like sheep of slaughtering,” that is, sheep destined for slaughter.
[44:23] 114 sn Wake up! See Ps 35:23.
[44:24] 115 tn Heb “Why do you hide your face?” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 30:7; 88:14).
[44:24] 117 tn Heb “our oppression and our affliction.”
[44:25] 118 tn Heb “for our being/life sinks down to the dirt, our belly clings to the earth.” The suffixed form of נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being, life”) is often equivalent to a pronoun in poetic texts.
[44:26] 119 tn Or “redeem us.” See Pss 25:22; 26:11; 69:18; 119:134.
