Mazmur 40:2

40:2 He lifted me out of the watery pit, ¹ 

out of the slimy mud. ² 

He placed my feet on a rock

and gave me secure footing. ³ 

Mazmur 86:13

86:13 For you will extend your great loyal love to me, ⁴ 

and will deliver my life ⁵  from the depths of Sheol. ⁶ 

Ulangan 32:22

32:22 For a fire has been kindled by my anger,

and it burns to lowest Sheol; ⁷ 

it consumes the earth and its produce,

and ignites the foundations of the mountains.

[40:2]  ¹ tn Heb “cistern of roaring.” The Hebrew noun בּוֹר (bor, “cistern, pit”) is used metaphorically here of Sheol, the place of death, which is sometimes depicted as a raging sea (see Ps 18:4, 15-16). The noun שָׁאוֹן (sha’on, “roaring”) refers elsewhere to the crashing sound of the sea’s waves (see Ps 65:7).

[40:2]  ² tn Heb “from the mud of mud.” The Hebrew phrase translated “slimy mud” employs an appositional genitive. Two synonyms are joined in a construct relationship to emphasize the single idea. 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.

[40:2]  ³ tn Heb “he established my footsteps.”

[86:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “for your loyal love [is] great over me.”

[86:13]  ⁵ tn Or “for he will have delivered my life.” The verb form indicates a future perfect here.

[86:13]  ⁶ tn Or “lower Sheol.”

[32:22]  ⁷ tn Or “to the lowest depths of the earth”; cf. NAB “to the depths of the nether world”; NIV “to the realm of death below”; NLT “to the depths of the grave.”

[32:22]  sn Sheol refers here not to hell and hell-fire – a much later concept – but to the innermost parts of the earth, as low down as one could get. The parallel with “the foundations of the mountains” makes this clear (cf. Pss 9:17; 16:10; 139:8; Isa 14:9, 15; Amos 9:2).