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I will pray[a] to God, my high ridge:[b]
“Why do you ignore[c] me?
Why must I walk around mourning[d]
because my enemies oppress me?”
10 My enemies’ taunts cut me to the bone,[e]
as they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”[f]
11 Why are you depressed,[g] O my soul?[h]
Why are you upset?[i]
Wait for God!
For I will again give thanks
to my God for his saving intervention.[j]

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 42:9 tn The cohortative form indicates the psalmist’s resolve.
  2. Psalm 42:9 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.
  3. Psalm 42:9 tn Or “forget.”
  4. Psalm 42:9 sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar idea.
  5. Psalm 42:10 tc Heb “with a shattering in my bones my enemies taunt me.” A few medieval Hebrew mss and Symmachus’ Greek version read “like” instead of “with.”
  6. Psalm 42:10 sn “Where is your God?” The enemies ask this same question in v. 3.
  7. Psalm 42:11 tn Heb “Why do you bow down?”
  8. Psalm 42:11 sn For poetic effect the psalmist addresses his soul, or inner self.
  9. Psalm 42:11 tn Heb “and why are you in turmoil upon me?”
  10. Psalm 42:11 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 (yeshuʿot feney ʾelohay, “[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.

I say to God my Rock,(A)
    “Why have you forgotten(B) me?
Why must I go about mourning,(C)
    oppressed(D) by the enemy?”(E)
10 My bones suffer mortal agony(F)
    as my foes taunt(G) me,
saying to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”(H)

11 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.(I)

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