Mazmur 30:7-12

30:7 O Lord, in your good favor you made me secure. ¹ 

Then you rejected me ²  and I was terrified.

30:8 To you, O Lord, I cried out;

I begged the Lord for mercy: ³ 

30:9 “What ⁴  profit is there in taking my life, ⁵ 

in my descending into the Pit? ⁶ 

Can the dust of the grave ⁷  praise you?

Can it declare your loyalty? ⁸ 

30:10 Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me!

O Lord, deliver me!” ⁹ 

30:11 Then you turned my lament into dancing;

you removed my sackcloth and covered me with joy. ¹⁰ 

30:12 So now ¹¹  my heart ¹²  will sing to you and not be silent;

O Lord my God, I will always ¹³  give thanks to you.

Mazmur 118:18-19

118:18 The Lord severely ¹⁴  punished me,

but he did not hand me over to death.

118:19 Open for me the gates of the just king’s temple! ¹⁵ 

I will enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.

Yesaya 12:1

12:1 At that time ¹⁶  you will say:

“I praise you, O Lord,

for even though you were angry with me,

your anger subsided, and you consoled me.

Daniel 4:34-37

4:34 But at the end of the appointed time ¹⁷  I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up ¹⁸  toward heaven, and my sanity returned to me.

I extolled the Most High,

and I praised and glorified the one who lives forever.

For his authority is an everlasting authority,

and his kingdom extends from one generation to the next.

4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. ¹⁹ 

He does as he wishes with the army of heaven

and with those who inhabit the earth.

No one slaps ²⁰  his hand

and says to him, ‘What have you done?’

4:36 At that time my sanity returned to me. I was restored ²¹  to the honor of my kingdom, and my splendor returned to me. My ministers and my nobles were seeking me out, and I was reinstated ²²  over my kingdom. I became even greater than before. 4:37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, for all his deeds are right and his ways are just. He is able to bring down those who live ²³  in pride.

[30:7]  ¹ tn Heb “in your good favor you caused to stand for my mountain strength.” Apparently this means “you established strength for my mountain” (“mountain” in this case representing his rule, which would be centered on Mt. Zion) or “you established strength as my mountain” (“mountain” in this case being a metaphor for security).

[30:7]  ² tn Heb “you hid your face.” The idiom “hide the face” can mean “ignore” (see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9) or, as here, carry the stronger idea of “reject” (see Ps 88:14).

[30:8]  ³ tn The prefixed verbal forms in v. 8 are probably preterites; the psalmist recalls that he prayed in his time of crisis.

[30:9]  ⁴ sn The following two verses (vv. 9-10) contain the prayer (or an excerpt of the prayer) that the psalmist offered to the Lord during his crisis.

[30:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “What profit [is there] in my blood?” “Blood” here represents his life.

[30:9]  ⁶ tn The Hebrew term שָׁחַת (shakhat, “pit”) is often used as a title for Sheol (see Pss 16:10; 49:9; 55:24; 103:4).

[30:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “dust.” The words “of the grave” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[30:9]  ⁸ tn The rhetorical questions anticipate the answer, “Of course not!”

[30:9]  sn 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 6:5; 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!

[30:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “be a helper to me.”

[30:11]  ¹⁰ sn Covered me with joy. “Joy” probably stands metonymically for festive attire here.

[30:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “so that”; or “in order that.”

[30:12]  ¹² tn Heb “glory.” Some view כָבוֹד (khavod, “glory”) here as a metonymy for man’s inner being (see BDB 459 s.v. II כָּבוֹד 5), but it is preferable to emend the form to כְּבֵדִי (kÿvediy, “my liver”). Like the heart, the liver is viewed as the seat of one’s emotions. See also Pss 16:9; 57:9; 108:1, as well as H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 64, and M. Dahood, Psalms (AB), 1:90. For an Ugaritic example of the heart/liver as the source of joy, see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 47-48: “her [Anat’s] liver swelled with laughter, her heart was filled with joy, the liver of Anat with triumph.” “Heart” is used in the translation above for the sake of English idiom; the expression “my liver sings” would seem odd indeed to the modern reader.

[30:12]  ¹³ tn Or “forever.”

[118:18]  ¹⁴ tn The infinitive absolute emphasizes the following verbal idea.

[118:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the gates of justice.” The gates of the Lord’s temple are referred to here, as v. 20 makes clear. They are called “gates of justice” because they are the entrance to the just king’s palace. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:1]  ¹⁶ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[4:34]  ¹⁷ tn Aram “days.”

[4:34]  ¹⁸ tn Aram “lifted up my eyes.”

[4:35]  ¹⁹ tc The present translation reads כְּלָא (kÿla’), with many medieval Hebrew MSS, rather than כְּלָה (kÿlah) of BHS.

[4:35]  ²⁰ tn Aram “strikes against.”

[4:36]  ²¹ tc The translation reads הַדְרֵת (hadret, “I returned”) rather than the MT הַדְרִי (hadri, “my honor”); cf. Theodotion.

[4:36]  ²² tc The translation reads הָתְקְנֵת (hotqÿnet, “I was established”) rather than the MT הָתְקְנַת (hotqÿnat, “it was established”). As it stands, the MT makes no sense here.

[4:37]  ²³ tn Aram “walk.”